Lost Memories
by Littlerose94
Summary: Kakashi's been gone for three years, what has happened in his absence? Angst and romance along with sparks of humor and fluffy sidestories, KakaIru slash. I suck at summaries, read to know more!
1. Past and present, what we have become

**Title**: Lost Memories

**Rating**: _**M+**_ to be on the safe side, though you'll have to wait for the possible (probably not so skillfully and explicitly written) lemon scenes for some time. I'll warn about them when the time comes, do not worry.

**Pairing**: Kakashi/Iruka as the main pair, others mentioned or implied

**Summary**: Kakashi's been gone for three years, what has happened in his absence? Does Iruka having a child mean he's forgotten about the jounin and moved on? I suck at summaries so you have to read to know more :DD

**Genre**: Angst, Romance, H/c and family I guess, might fit others as well...

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto (sadly *laughs*) and I'm certainly not making any money with this!

**A/N**: I haven't written in English for a long time and it's not my first language so I'm sorry if I'm not perfect. However, I have a wonderful beta reader helping me, to whom I owe a lot. This fic would be a mess without Alcorion!  
><strong>Edit<strong>: After chapter 7, credits for beta reading go to Radkoko who has taken over the job! Love you3

**Notes**: A bit about the timeline, this fic is set after the time skip but due to Kakashi's mission, the manga/anime timeline will not be followed after Naruto leaves Konoha to train with Jiraya. I'll explain more about Lost Memories universe's timeline later on if need be. Try to bear with me, this is fiction after all! :)

Please leave comments, it always makes me happy to know there's someone out there reading my stuff, otherwise I think no one does and I get depressed xD

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><p><strong>Lost Memories<strong>

KakaIru fanfic

M+

1st chapter

**_Past and Present, What We Have Become_  
><strong>

_oOo_

"_I have to go now Ruka" the silver haired jounin was standing in the doorway; the rising sun lit the room from behind him. Kakashi had his backpack readied by his side and he was wearing his ANBU uniform. The said chunin teacher was standing on the other side of the room with his arms crossed, silently frowning at his lover who was about to leave him. Being a ninja, he was used to loved ones coming and going, but never had it been that hard. Kakashi hadn't been on ANBU for years, but now Konoha was in need of the Hound again._

"_Are you mad at me?" the older man asked. Iruka looked at him with sad eyes and shook his head. He walked across the room and let Kakashi wrap his arms around him._

"_How could I be?" he asked and inhaled the older man's scent, enjoying it while he still could. _

_"You know I love you" the jounin said, it was more of a statement than a question "if I come back, will you be mine once again?"_

_The only answer he got was a nod and he knew his lover was about to cry. He felt something touch his feet, and he knew Pakkun had come to get him as they had agreed._

"_I have to let you go now" Kakashi said, they both knew he meant it more than just literally but neither said it out loud. "Goodbye", he placed one last kiss on the chunin's forehead before leaving._

_oOo_

"Daddy!"

Iruka woke up to a heavy feeling on his chest, as well as someone calling him. The said someone was sitting on top of him with a worried look on her tiny face as she stared down at him.

"Rin-chan, what's wrong?" he asked and sat up, careful not to make the little girl fall down.

"Daddy had a bad dream" she answered and reached out her hand to wipe Iruka's cheek, which was wet. The chunin hugged his daughter and put a smile on his face

"Thank you for waking me up sweetie. Are you hungry?" Rin nodded and patted her stomach, as to say she was indeed hungry. "Okay, I slept late today, so to make it up to you I shall make you some tasty pancakes for breakfast!" Iruka said and smiled as his words hit the little girl, who threw her hands in the air and let out a scream of joy. She then proceeded to hop down from the bed and ran off to the kitchen.

"I'll be there in a minute sweetie!" the chunin promised and got up.

After having brushed his teeth, Iruka looked at his face in the mirror. How long had it been since the last time he'd had that dream? 'Long' he thought and splashed some cold water on his face. A little over three years had passed since the day that had changed his life. Three long years, and he still couldn't forget the older man. Even though the chances of Kakashi still being alive out there were already practically zero, the chunin couldn't let go, albeit he had been forced to move on in a way that had surprised even himself.

About a year after Kakashi's ANBU squad of twelve men and their commander had left on their undercover mission, four of them had returned. The members had been beaten up to the point that one of them had died in the hospital a few days after their arrival. The rest had told the horrible news to the Hokage and the family members, including Iruka. Their cover had been blown and the operation had turned into a massacre, leaving the small squad no choice but to abort the mission. The only reason the three of them still remained alive had been their squad leader Hound, who had stayed behind to delay the enemy for long enough for them to get to safety.

The news had made the chunin teacher lose it for a while. He had stopped going to work, cutting his ties with everyone, basically shutting himself in his apartment for days in a row. His friends had tried their best, but no one had managed to convince him that there was still something to live for.

That was until Tsunade had come to Iruka's door with a small wriggling bundle in her arms, forcing her way in past his shut doors. "Iruka-sensei" she had said softly "there's someone here who wants to meet you". For some reason, Iruka had raised his head and listened to the Hokage. Now that he thought about it that just might have saved his life.

Tsunade had been cradling a cute little baby girl to her chest; apparently she had lost her parents in a recent fire in the border of the village and had no relatives that could have taken her in. She had told him the girl needed Iruka as much as Iruka needed her, and that they could help each other out. The baby had looked at Iruka with its sleepy brown eyes, and the gentle chunin had fallen in love with her at the very first sight. "I'll raise her" he had said, and from that day on his life had slowly become normal again.

Iruka walked to the kitchen, where his energetic little girl was already waiting with her favorite plush toy. "Sorry for the wait, princess" Iruka said smiling, "I'll start right away. Do you want to help me?" Rin nodded and dragged a kitchen chair in front of the kitchen counter, on which Iruka had already put some of the ingredients. The chunin always let her cook with him, he considered it to be one of the most important skills in life and it was never bad to start early.

Like usually, Rin was the one stirring the ingredients as Iruka added them one after another. Of course a three-year-old didn't have the strength to finish the job, so the chunin took it over after telling what a good job she had done. One of the things in the kitchen she wasn't allowed to touch was the stove, so while Iruka finished making the pancakes she played with her toys.

"Okay, let's eat!" the chunin said as he finished setting the table, after which he helped Rin to sit down. She was a very mature child for her age, but very often her small figure limited her actions.

Iruka watched her eat with an affectionate look in his eyes. Rin was a happy child, two and half years old though the chunin always thought of her as a three-year-old for some reason. She was mature for her age, very independent and intelligent and somehow it seemed like she could always tell what people around her were thinking and feeling. Needless to say, Iruka was very proud of his little girl; she had become his whole world after what had happened, and he meant pretty much the world to her as well.

People often liked to tease Iruka about their similarities. Rin had the eyes and hair of the same color as the chunin, and their personalities were a match as well. She was like a mini version of her father, and they got told so very often. Iruka was constantly blushing at the mission assignment room as his co-workers teasingly accused him of having had an affair with someone, since Rin resembled him so much that according to them it couldn't only be a coincidence.

After breakfast, Iruka washed the dishes. The weather looked nice, perfect for a day outside. Usually on Saturdays they went somewhere, since the chunin was off from work and Rin had no kindergarten on weekends.

"How about we go to the woods to pick some berries?" he asked the girl, who had gotten back to playing with her toys while Iruka had washed the dishes. There was no answer, so the chunin just thought Rin hadn't heard him or didn't quite understand the meaning of picking berries yet, they had done that only a couple of times before after all.

Iruka got his girl dressed to go out, and then he changed his own clothes. Rin had her own little basket where she could put berries if she managed to pick some, yellow rain boots and a jacket of a matching color which made her easy to spot in case she'd somehow manage to wander too far from the chunin. Naruto aside, everyone was pretty much wearing clothes with more discreet or camouflage colors after starting at the ninja academy, so parents usually liked to dress small children in bright colors and Iruka was no exception.

"And we're ready to go!" Iruka said as he picked the girl up and made her sit on his shoulders, it was faster that way and there was no way she could get lost either.

They went pretty far from home this time, to the forest near the training grounds on the left side of the main gate. No one was supposed to train there on Saturdays, and the part of the forest that actually had berries growing in it was off limits anyway, since training would have ruined the good soil. A special kind of berry that was really good for making jam grew around that area, and they were supposed to be perfectly ripe at that time of the year.

"Look sweetie" Iruka said and took Rin to see a bush with berries "See these? They are berries we want" the girl nodded with a smile. "Now what you should do with the berries, is to pick them" the chunin picked a berry and put it in Rin's little basket "and put them right here. Can you do that for me sweetie?" again, the girl nodded and repeated what Iruka had done, making the chunin smile widely. "Good, now stay here and pick some berries, daddy will be right over there doing the same thing, all right?" after watching the girl for a while, Iruka went to the bush right next to the first one and started picking.

By the time they had picked enough berries it was already almost lunchtime.

"Daddy" Rin walked up to the chunin and showed her basket, which was almost full.

"Good job sweetie, shall we go home then?" Iruka lifted the girl on his shoulders again. "Maybe we should go stop by the memorial stone first, then I promise we'll go home" he said when they had walked for a while, and changed the direction. After Kakashi's disappearance, Iruka had visited the memorial quite often. It had usually been during the night so he wouldn't run into anyone he knew, but after he had had Rin enter his life his visits had grown fewer. Actually, he'd just been to the memorial a couple of days ago so it was way early for him to be visiting the place again, but for some reason he had a feeling he just had to go today.

_oOo  
><em>

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><p>AN: Comments please!


	2. Is she yours?

2nd chapter

**_Is She Yours?  
><em>  
><strong>

_oOo  
><em>

At the memorial, Iruka let go of his daughter and sat down in front of the stone. Rin had been there many times before, since the chunin took her there with him as often as possible so she'd get used to the memorial stone and understand what the place was used for. While Iruka talked to his parents, Rin would always entertain herself with whatever happened to be within her reach.

"Hello mom and dad" Iruka greeted after making sure Rin was playing close enough for him to see and hear her all the time.

"As you can see, we're doing great with Rin. We made pancakes for breakfast today; she's quite the little helper at home. I can barely believe she's only a little less than three years old and then again it feels like Tsunade-sama only brought her to me yesterday." He smiled at his memories and glanced at the small brunette, who had apparently found a very fascinating stick she was now waving in the air, laughing.

"Children grow so fast. Naruto has grown a lot as well, he came back with Jiraya-sama about a half a year ago and I barely recognized him. He doesn't have the time to eat ramen with me so often anymore now that he's gotten more powerful; he's always training or on missions, just like Kakashi always was."

The chunin sighed and his smile withered and his voice was layered with sadness as he continued.

"I dreamt about him again last night. It's been so long since last time, it's always the same dream and it stays as vivid as if Kakashi had left only yesterday." His voice was a mere whisper as he reached the last part of his sentence. It wasn't like he really wanted to forget, but how long could he go on like this, not even knowing if Kakashi was still alive or not?

Statistically the silver haired jounin had been dead long ago, but the chunin just didn't believe it. Surely he would have felt it if Kakashi wasn't in the same word anymore, or was it just something people used to say?

Suddenly, Iruka felt someone else's presence. He got up and reached for his kunai, only to find out he was too late. Before he could even feel the presence of his attacker, Iruka felt the cold blade on his throat.

"Freeze"

The voice was somehow familiar to him, but there was definitely something wrong with it. The chunin did as told, and glanced at Rin who had noticed the situation, but the girl was still too young to be able to tell what was going on.

"Daddy?" she asked, her shivering voice showing that she understood the situation wasn't good. She looked like she was about to come closer, but Iruka stopped her.

"Stay where you are sweetie, don't come any closer!" he shouted and the girl stopped, looking frightened. "It's going to be all right" he tried to reassure her, although he wasn't so sure about it. An attacker inside the city walls? The situation looked bad, not only for him but for the whole village if the stranger managed to get away.

"Is she yours?"

The question surprised Iruka, why was the attacker interested in that kind of thing? And what should he answer in order to save the little girl who was watching them with watery eyes.

"How is it any of your business?" the chunin asked. He had felt the man loosen his grip when he had heard Rin calling for him. Was it better to answer truthfully, or would that just cause him to go after Rin?

"Answer the question!" Iruka felt the hand holding the blade shake. Only a little though, but he could definitely tell.

"Yes she is my daughter" he admitted.

To Iruka's surprise, as soon as those words left his lips he could feel the pressure on his throat wavering and then disappearing. The attacker was gone without a trace.

"Daddy!"

Rin ran to him with tears rolling down her face and the chunin took her in his arms, eyeing their surroundings now fully alert.

"Let's go" he said to the crying girl, threw her on his back and headed toward the academy grounds. He had to report the incident to the Hokage, a foreign attacker inside the village's borders was a grave offense and indicated an alarming hole in the security.

_oOo  
><em>

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Tsunade couldn't believe her ears. Her favorite messenger slug was on her desk, nodding.

"Yes I am, they demanded you to come as soon as you could" it answered, with a very serious look on its tiny face.

"I'll right, go back and tell them I'll come as soon as I can"

"I shall do that" the slug disappeared with a small puff of smoke, leaving Tsunade alone in her office.

Shizune opened the door "Tsunade-sama, Iruka-sensei's here to see you, he says it's urgent" she said and waited for the Hokages response.

"All right, let him in but after that I'll have to go so don't let anyone else in the waiting hall for now, thank you." She sat down again and waited for the academy teacher to come in. Was it a coincidence that he wanted to see her, or could it be related to what she had just heard?

"Excuse me for intruding Tsunade-sama". Iruka said as he came in, dipping his head down to a bow "Something happened while we were at the memorial stone just now and I think you should know about it".

The Hokage raised her brow, but didn't say anything.

"There was an unknown attacker, I didn't manage to identify him or catch him" the reason for that was quite obvious, since Iruka had his little girl sleeping against his back. She had cried herself to sleep on their way to the Hokage's office.

"Did you manage to retrieve anything that might be useful in tracking this man down?" Tsunade asked, although she already knew who the attacker was as well as the place he was being held at the moment. However, it was important to hear what Iruka had observed during that brief moment of contact.

"There was something weird about him that bothered me. Now that I think about it, he must have been using some kind of powerful jutsu to hide himself since I only noticed him when he was already right behind me with his blade against my throat. I might only be a chunin, but I'm pretty confident I should have noticed an outsider long before the situation got that bad." A small pause as the dolphin thought about the incident and tried to recall every tiny bit of it.

"Also, he released me and disappeared as soon as I told him Rin was my daughter. What do you think that means? Do you suppose he could be her relative?" Iruka looked worried, he turned his head a little to see the little brunette who was still sleeping soundly, face buried against the nape of his neck.

Tsunade had to think for a while; she had to be careful with her words.

"Thank you for telling this to me. I know for sure that all Rin's relatives are dead since I was there myself when it happened, so that is not possible. However there's something I wanted to talk you about, could you possibly come back next Saturday?" she asked after she had made her decision.

"Yes, Hokage-sama" the chunin answered and nodded.

"Good. Well then, I must go now, I have an important meeting" the Hokage said and got up from her chair. Iruka bowed shortly and left the office, leaving her alone in her office.

"What a coincidence indeed" she muttered before disappearing with a puff of white smoke.

_oOo  
><em>

"_Is it really him?" Tsunade was observing her medics work. Five of them were surrounding the bed, on which a pale man had been put with restraints all over his body to protect the medics as well as himself._

"_Yes, it seems to be. We're currently casting a healing jutsu on him, but it'll__ take time for it to have an effect and even after that he'll be weak and nauseated for weeks" the medic looked at his chart on the patient. _

_"Also, we still haven't been able to observe his mental state, seeing as he collapsed right after coming here and h__is injuries and the jutsu will keep him in a coma for some time, which if I might say is a good thing considering the amount of pain he must be in right now. No ordinary human would be able to sustain it in a conscious state." _

_Tsunade's face softened as__ she looked at the man lying on the bed with a striking resemblance to a corpse. _

_"How long will it take? About a little less than a week I presume"._

_The medic nodded. "Yes, in a week his body should have healed. But we have to keep in mind that his mind has probably activated some kind of def__ense mechanism on its own, which would mean…"_

_The Hokage closed her eyes "I know what it means, thank you" she said softly._

_oOo_

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><p>AN: I'm sorry, I know this chapter's even shorter than the one before! Also the text "chapter 2" doesn't seem to want to be nicely in the middle, if someone knows how to fix it please tell me? And yes, it's correctly placed in the doc manager :'(


	3. There's someone I think you should meet

A/N: The 3rd chapter's here! Secrets are beginning to unravel! *laughs*

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><p>3rd chapter<p>

_**There's someone I think you should meet**_

_oOo  
><em>

Umino Iruka was known for being an early bird. He could always be seen jogging around the city in the mornings before work, and he was never late for work or any kind of meetings.

However during the weekends the self-disciplined teacher allowed himself to sleep in and recover from the week's horrors, which included many hours of work with tricky, bothersome and self-centered jounin as well as little hellions, otherwise known as pre-genin or simply students. Sweet little sugar-buns if someone asked their parents, but all the teachers without exceptions often begged to differ.

This time however, he woke up already at seven in the morning, after which he couldn't sleep. A week had passed since that incident at the memorial stone, and what a long week it had been indeed. Maybe it was because of the restlessness caused by the upcoming meeting with the Hokage, maybe not, but it sure had gone slowly. Of course Iruka had met her many times before but this time there seemed to be something important she wanted to tell him, and he couldn't stop speculating what it might be.

Iruka got up, careful not to wake up his little girl who was sleeping next to him on the double bed. Rin had her own bed in the corner of the room, but she rarely used it since the chunin didn't have the heart to refuse her whenever she wanted to sleep with him. After making sure she was properly under the covers, the dolphin went to the living room to grade some papers. The term end tests were still waiting for someone to grade them which was good, since Iruka liked to relax by reading his students works and correcting them, as weird as it sounded.

At exactly one thirty, Iruka was at the Hokages office again.

"Would you mind leaving Rin with Shizune? It would be better that way" Tsunade said and her assistant came in.

"Sure" the chunin answered and kneeled in front of his daughter. "Rin, could you go play with that nice lady over there? I bet she's an awesome playmate, she'll take good care of you" as a proof to his words, Shizune smiled to the little girl and waved her hand. Rin looked a bit hesitant, but ended up walking over to the kunoichi, after having given Iruka a kiss on the cheek, and a hug.

"All right, shall we go then?" Tsunade said once the two had left the room.

The chunin teacher followed her as she led them to the hospital. There they walked past the normal section, heading for the old wing of the building. As far as Iruka knew, the old wing was supposed to be closed when the normal side wasn't overflowing with patients, but seemed like it wasn't after all.

"I thought this part of the building wasn't in everyday use" Iruka noted, wondering.

Tsunade looked like she was thinking about whether to tell the chunin or not, and ended up telling.

"Well that's because it's not. This section of the hospital is where we take care of the ones that have suffered the greatest injuries during missions, or the ones that are the most likely to contaminate or hurt others in the normal wing. In other words, this is the place where all ANBU's and Jounin coming back from higher rank missions are being held after their immediate return, if they have sustained some kind of mental or physical damage." She nodded to a medic who gave her some kind of chart as they passed him.

"You might not remember it, but you have been here once yourself after you came back from one of the A ranked missions you have successfully carried out. Most of the patients have no recollection of this place because we transfer them to the other side as soon as they pose no danger for the normal patients anymore."

The Hokages explanation left Iruka pretty much speechless, there was one time he'd been injured really bad during his mission, and that time it had been Kakashi who'd carried him back half dead. The trauma had erased part of his memory about the whole incident, and he hadn't really ever thought where he had been healed, since he had woken up in the normal side of the hospital.

"So what's this about?" He asked. Maybe somewhere deep down he knew what they were going to see, but his conscious mind didn't allow him to realize it quite yet, since he had pretty much forced himself not to have false hope again, it would only hurt more to get his hopes up and then find out he had been wrong.

"There's someone I think you should meet" Tsunade answered, and stopped in front of a room.

"Hokage-sama!" the medic sitting in front of the room's door sprang up as soon as he saw the two of them stopping in front of him. "No change on the patient, I've been keeping an eye on him after the medic team finished with the jutsu, just like you instructed. He still hasn't woken up, but we were just discussing it with a colleague and we came to conclusion that he might be refusing to do so".

Tsunade frowned to the medics' words, but then she seemed to understand what was going on.

"Thank you, you may go now. I'll check on him for now and after that I'll call someone else to replace you, it's been two days since I told you to watch over him hasn't it? You need some sleep" The medic looked relieved, and bowed before leaving.

Iruka had been listening carefully as the two medics had spoken together, he wasn't sure if he'd just misunderstood the situation, but…

"Tsunade-sama" he started, his voice was faint and he had to stop for a second "is 'He'…?" the chunin couldn't finish his question, but he was sure the Hokage knew what he wanted to ask.

"Why don't you go in and see for yourself?" Tsunade answered with a gentle smile and opened the door for him.

As Iruka entered in the room, his knees almost gave out on him.

The room was small and old; the naked walls which had probably once been pure white had grown yellowish with time, giving the room a gentle and soft light instead of the usual blinding white of hospital rooms. The room didn't smell as antiseptic as the rooms on the normal side, actually the air was quite fresh and the temperature was also just right, not too hot or cold. There were only a couple of things in the room, two chairs, a drawer and a bed.

However, what had paralyzed the chunin was the man lying on the bed.

Kakashi's silver hair was much whiter than what the younger man remembered it was also shorter by some inches and tame against his head. His mask and head hitai-ate were gone, revealing his haggard face, from which Iruka could easily tell the man had lost a lot of weight. Across the side of his throat was a big scar which looked recent enough to have healed only yesterday. The rest of Kakashi's body was covered, but the chunin could see his figure clearly was thinner than before, probably due to having been captive for so long.

"How…?" Iruka couldn't move or speak; he had been expecting anything but this. He couldn't quite grasp what he was seeing; his brain simply didn't process the sight in front of him.

"We don't know of how he managed to escape and make his way back to Konoha. He appeared here last week about the same time you came to my office" Tsunade said, she had a soft look on her face again.

"So the important matter you were talking about was…" There was no real interest in Iruka's voice as he spoke, he didn't care about the answer, he just needed to talk to get his thoughts together again.

"Yes, I received the word about his arrival only seconds before you came in my office and I don't think it's a coincidence".

That was when Iruka's brains started to function again. The scar on the jounins throat…

"He was the attacker?" the chunin couldn't believe his own words, but it somehow made sense to him, how hearing his voice and Rin calling him 'daddy' had made his attacker loosen his hold and finally disappear.

"Yes I think so. I also think you are the trigger needed for him to wake up. You might already realize this, but he didn't attack you for a reason, in his mind he was probably still not safe, and you were an armed adult shinobi standing in his way. It would also explain why you weren't able to notice his presence earlier, I would assume you had grown so used to it during the years you were together that your mind didn't even register having sensed him" Tsunade knew the chunin was familiar with that kind of behavior, anyone living with a higher ranked ninja was, but she wanted to say it out loud just to reassure Iruka.

The academy teacher took a few steps closer to the bed.

"Like you heard the medic say, we still haven't been able to observe his state of mind, only the physical injuries have been healed. It will also take some time to rehabilitate, since he was captive so long that he's pretty much lost his muscles and a lot of weight as well. He's going to have to start from almost zero with his strength training; I bet that'll piss him off"'.

Iruka didn't really listen that carefully to what she said; his mind was preoccupied with observing every breath the jounin took, so naturally he was the first one to notice that something weird was up with Kakashi.

"Tsunade-sama, there seems to be something wrong with him" He noted worriedly and turned to the Hokage, who was beside the bed right away. However after examining the jounin for some minutes she turned to Iruka, not looking too concerned.

"He's having a bad dream" she simply stated, but there was something else she needed to say. "There's something I'd like you to try which could help him."

Iruka didn't know how to answer since he had no idea what Tsunade wanted from him, so he just looked at her with an obviously questioning expression on his face.

"I'd like you to call him. You heard the medic say that he might be refusing to wake up, which means he might need some kind of trigger to change his mind. I happen to think you are our best shot, since I suppose there's no one else who'd be more important for him than you". Tsunade took a step back from the bed, allowing the chunin to approach the sleeping man.

"What I want you to do is to simply call him; you can also touch him if you want to. You might want to be careful though, since as you know he might not realize he's safe, in which case he might be likely to try and assault you".

Iruka nodded and touched the jounins shoulder softly "Kakashi? Can you hear me?" His voice was about to give in again and he felt tears burning behind his eyes as he spoke to the unconscious man. "Kashi, please wake up, I want to hear your voice again." He couldn't hold the tears back anymore, not after he was seeing his love after three long years.

"Please." He pleaded and touched the sleeping man's face, brushing a few strands of the silvery hair off from his face.

Even though Kakashi didn't wake up, he calmed down and his face showed he wasn't having a nightmare anymore. After a while, Iruka gave up.

"Maybe we should go now, he might wake up but it seems like it's not today." Tsunade said compassionately and touched Iruka's shoulder softly, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. "Come on, I'll let you visit him again another day, okay?"

Normally visits to the old wing weren't allowed, but for the sake of one of her best ninja's and definitely her best academy teacher, she was willing to make an exception.

_oOo_

'_Kakashi' _

_A__ familiar voice was calling for him. Kakashi was sitting in darkness, there was nothing surrounding him. It took him a while to realize that the voice calling for him sounded like Iruka's, but how could it have been him? Without a doubt, it was yet another trick to make him come back to reality. _

'_Kashi' _

_The jounin frowned; no one was supposed to call him that but his lover. _

_Then he remembered he didn't have one. He had broken up with Iruka before leaving, since he'd known there was a high possibility he wasn't going to return from this mission. He couldn't possibly have left Iruka like that, waiting for him to come back when he knew he wouldn't. That's why he had had to do it, that's why Iruka had moved on. He had seen it, the lovely little girl that was like a spitting image of Iruka, calling him 'daddy'. There was nothing to go back to, nothing he needed from that world. The enemy should just have killed him._

'_Kashi' _

_The voice was somehow persistent, irritating. Couldn't they just let him be? Then suddenly, Kakashi felt his consciousness fade, a flash of whiteness was the last thing before he woke up._

_oOo_

Kakashi opened his eyes slowly. He could hear two people talking somewhere, but he didn't recognize the voices. He saw white all around him. Then his memories came back, the torture, his time in captivity and the attempt to escape. Had he made it? He wasn't sure. For some reason he didn't feel any pain and he wasn't tied up to the wall anymore. Maybe they had finally thought he was gone for good, but he'd show them that it had been a mistake.

As fast as his emaciated body only allowed him, he got up and went to the corner farthest from the enemy. There were two of them, a busty woman and a tanned man who both turned around as soon as they heard him. He didn't recognize either of them, but they didn't look very hostile. Maybe he really had managed to get away. The woman didn't seem as much of a threat as the man, since she was clearly a medic. The man however was armed and posed a threat to him, so he got on a defensive position and tried to look as offensive as possible.

"Kakashi!" They seemed to know who he was, but then again it wasn't like he didn't have a reputation in all of the hidden villages.

"Don't come any closer!" He shouted as the woman approached him, and tried his best not to look like he was about to faint again. He was feeling nauseous, his head hurt and he had trouble staying on his feet.

"It's okay, you're safe now Kakashi" The woman said and held her hands in the air, as to show she didn't mean any harm.

"I made it?" Kakashi's eyes narrowed and his voice showed doubt; he couldn't believe it was true. Maybe it was some kind of trick again? He glanced at the man besides the woman; he did have Konoha's hitai-ate. He shook his head as he almost remembered something, but the memory slipped from his reach before he could process it, leaving him puzzled.

The man looked familiar. He was definitely someone Kakashi knew, but as he tried to remember his headache worsened, making him hold his head. He had to close his eyes momentarily before he looked at the man again.

"Who?" he asked managed to ask before his vision blurred and the darkness washed over him.

_oOo  
><em>

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><p>AN: Please leave comments, it always makes me happy!


	4. The story about a Prince and a Knight

A/N: Sorry it took me so long, I'm having a little communication problem with my other beta but can't be helped since I really want to post this already. So here it is, chapter four!

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><p>4th chapter<p>

**_The story about a Prince and a Knight_**

_oOo_

As soon as Kakashi's eyes closed and he started falling the chunin ran to him, catching the man long before he hit the floor. It was a reflex, an instinctive reaction of which he didn't even need to think about, his body just moved on its own according to what felt natural.

The older man was so light, almost like a child. Eyes filled with worry and longing, he wanted to hold him close and never let him go but he knew he couldn't do that. Instead, he carried Kakashi back to bed and carefully tucked him under the covers again.

"As expected" He heard Tsunade say.

"I thought he wouldn't remember what had happened to him; obviously he didn't even recognize who we were. That's not worthy to worrying about though, waking up from a healing coma makes one's head pretty soft for some time, and often the first time they wake up… Well if I had a bottle of sake for every time I have seen that, I'd be very, very happy".

It wasn't like Iruka was not listening, only his mind was so focused on the older man he didn't even register half of what the Hokage was saying, which might have been bad, had Tsunade been the kind of person to get angry for getting disregarded like that. The chunin just stared at Kakashi's face, his changed but still painfully familiar features, his scar with which the older man had a serious love-hate relationship, his spiky hair and dry chapped lips.

"We should leave now; the healing jutsu takes a heavy toll on one's body so he should be pretty much sleeping for the next couple of days if not more." She said and waited for Iruka to turn around but he didn't.

"Now that he's awoken I think he'll be transferred to the new wing in some days, after that you can visit him like any other patient" She added as the chunin just stood beside the bed.

"Right" Iruka muttered and stroked the older man's cheek gently one more time before they left.

"Daddy!"

Rin's cheerful voice greeted the chunin as they returned to the office with Tsunade.

"Hi princess, have you been a good girl?" Iruka asked and picked the girl up as she ran to him, laughing and waving her arms in the air.

"Yes!" the girl answered, nodding furiously "she has a pig, daddy!"

Iruka chuckled and smiled to her "I know sweetie, did you have fun?" Again, furious nodding and giggling.

"She's a very smart girl for her age Iruka-sensei; I guess I should have expected that from your daughter. Her vocabulary is quite wide" Shizune said and smiled, patting the girls head.

"Thank you, she's really fast to learn things and she always wants me to read to her, I guess that's why" Iruka explained and rubbed his scar like he always did when he was feeling embarrassed or self-conscious. "Shall we go home then, Rin-chan?" He asked, it was about her nap time already.

"There's still one thing I'd like to ask of you, Iruka-sensei" Tsunade said, stopping them as they were about to leave.

"Can you keep quiet about this at least until he gets transferred to the other wing? We don't usually allow anyone on the old wing so technically you're not supposed to know about his return quite yet. I promise you he'll be transferred in a couple of days and you'll be able to see him then".

The chunin nodded for an answer before they left, he could deal with a couple more days of waiting now that he knew Kakashi was alive and relatively well considering the situation.

___oOo  
><em>

"Ne, daddy…"

Iruka looked at his daughter. The girl looked like there was something bothering her

"What is it sweetie, are you hungry?" Rin shook her head and stared at her feet, not saying anything. "I'll heat up some milk and make a hot chocolate for you, how about that?" The chunin said and went to the kitchen with her.

After Rin had drunk her hot chocolate, Iruka took her to bed and tucked her in.

"Daddy, did something happen?" she finally managed to say as Iruka was about to leave the room. The chunin hadn't expected her to notice anything was going on, but once again she managed to surprise him with her sensibility. He had to think for a minute, how to explain things to someone that young?

"Let me tell you a story." He finally said and went back to the bed and laid down beside Rin, who crept closer, snuggling against his chest and put her plush toy's ear in her mouth. The faded pink bunny was old and filthy but loved all the same, and Iruka wasn't allowed to wash it. He had tried once or twice, but the worried owner wouldn't let him, in fear the toy would mysteriously disappear or something.

"Once upon a time, there lived a Prince and his Knight, both serving a mighty country and its Queen. The Prince and Knight were in love with each other and their life was good, they had everything they could ever have wished for. Their people loved and respected them and they loved their people and served them well. The era of peace was fruitful and every day was full of happiness as they lived in harmony with everyone.

Then one day, the Prince discovered that the kingdom of Evil was about to destroy the peace, and being the country's sworn protector, he had the duty to make things all right again for he was the only one who could set everything right again. Though he was really sad to do so, he left his Knight to hold the fort and went far away to the kingdom of evil.

A year passed and the Prince didn't come back. Everyone believed he had fallen in the great battle against the Evil, but doing so he had also saved them since the peace continued and the Evil was not heard about. However, the Knight could not forget his Prince who had disappeared from his life so unexpectedly.

His grief was so deep that he lost his will to live, and soon the people started to worry about his health. They feared he would do something bad to himself so they sent one of the Knights friends, the Doctor, to watch over him. The Doctor told him he would die if he didn't forget the Prince, but even so the Knight refused, for he loved the prince more than his own life."

The little girl looked concerned "Did the Knight die?" she asked, looking at Iruka with her chocolate colored eyes full of compassion.

"No he didn't, something happened."

Rin's eyes brightened with anticipation as she waited for the chunin to continue his story. "What happened?"

Iruka smiled at her and pulled her a little closer.

"Since the Knight couldn't forget his prince, it seemed like all hope for him was lost. Then something unexpected happened to him, a beautiful baby princess entered his life. From that day on, the Knight couldn't afford to be selfish anymore and he started to get better again, for he had to take care of his little baby girl. He still missed the Prince very much, but the little Princess had become his whole world and the reason he had to get up from bed every day and live on.

Then one day after some time had passed, the High Queen came to see the Knight, for something unforeseen had happened and he needed to know. The Knight went with her, after having left his child to the Queen's assistant for a while. They went to a secret place; where the Knight saw someone he had thought he'd never see again"

"Was it the Prince?" Rin asked, she had tears in her eyes as she looked at the chunin.

"Yes it was, the Prince was badly hurt and sleeping, but it was indeed his Prince. He had come back home" Iruka answered, already knowing what the girl was about to ask next.

"So did they live happily ever after?" that was a question Iruka was wondering himself.

"I don't know sweetie, I don't know" he answered and petted Rin's silky hair. "Now, this Princess has to take a nap, or else she'll be grumpy for the rest of the day" He said softly and kissed her forehead before getting up and leaving.

The day had turned Iruka's life upside down once more. Never had he expected to be led to his love when he had gotten up that morning. Even though he had of course hoped Kakashi was still alive, he hadn't seriously believed he'd ever again see or be able to touch the older man. It would only have been suicide to keep the hope alive for that long and after all he did now have a reason to live on, a reason for which he had been obligated to force himself to forget.

How had he forgotten?

The dolphin went to the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face. Why was he so calm about all this? Kakashi had come back home, shouldn't he have been jumping up and down with joy? No, that was not it, there was something else to it and something he had done but couldn't remember. Iruka dried his face with a towel and went to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate, he needed to think.

They were almost out of milk, the chunin noticed as he poured some in the kettle to heat it up, and made a mental note to go buy some more the next time he was grocery shopping. Milk always heated up so fast that he had been hesitant with it before, but after Rin had come into the picture, he had simply had to learn how to do it properly without it getting too hot to bear.

When Iruka was done and the hot chocolate was in his favorite mug on the table, he put the kettle in the washbasin and happened to glance at something interesting. On the shelf, with sugar, salt and pepper was a photo of him with baby Rin. It wasn't the photo's contents or the finger painted frame that made him remember, but the place on which it was. Three years ago there had been a photo in the exact same place but back then it had consisted of different people.

Iruka blinked his eyes as he realized what had been bugging him back in the bathroom. He took his hot chocolate and left it on the table in the living room, continuing back to the bedroom to look for a photo album.

_oOo_

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><p>AN: I know it sounds weird that they're a Prince and a Knight but you'll understand it later. Again sorry for the shortness xD


	5. The sealed memories

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I've been on vacation for some time!

* * *

><p>5th chapter<p>

_**The sealed memories**_

_oOo_

In the bedroom, Iruka tiptoed to the drawer which had always been the place he'd just stuff things he didn't need into. He opened it and found the hidden compartment in the back he had wanted to. After only a few seconds, the dolphin held in his hands a photo album, which he had hid in there nearly two years aback. He could feel the chakra surrounding the album; fortunately the jutsu still seemed to be working.

Having tiptoed out of the bedroom, Iruka closed the door so he wouldn't accidentally wake up his daughter. Then he took his cup of hot chocolate, put it on the small table besides the couch and sat down with the album. It looked just like he remembered, brown with golden decorations in the corners and the sides, smelling like an old book, which it was in a way.

'Time to open you up' he thought to himself as he formed the seals to open the photo album.

_Iruka glued the last picture he had found of Kakashi in the album he held in his hands and sighed. Over the past week, he had gathered every single picture, letter and scribbled note in his possession and glued them between the covers of an old album he had found from the attic. Now the whole five years and some months he had lived with the older man were gathered up and glued on the off-white pages, not shattered around their apartment and his desk at the academy._

'_Do I really want to do this?' the dolphin thought as he looked down at the album, but after lifting his head to glance at his baby girl who was sleeping just a few meters away from him in her crib, he knew he didn't have a choice. The jutsu he was about to do would allow him to seal parts of his feelings and memories inside the photo-album, from which he could also retrieve them one day if need be._

_That way it would be easier for him to move on with Rin, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to erase Kakashi from his life __ without a trace __like that. Of course he'd still leave some feelings for him, he'd leave __love and some of the less painful memories, but most of them he'd seal off until the time would be __right again._

_The chunin took one last glance before he closed the album and made the seals that would activate the jutsu._

"_See you Kakashi"_

Tears burned behind Iruka 's eyes and he trembled as he felt the memories, the longing and love flow back to his body and mind. Now he remembered everything, felt everything, now he was whole again. When the first wave of emotions had settled in and he had calmed down a bit, the dolphin decided he was ready to face his past and opened the photo album. The tears started rolling down the chunin's cheeks as he leafed through the countless pages filled with memories of his life with Kakashi.

It was like he lived all those moments again, all the laughing, loving, bickering and frankly just being together, all the quarrels and good moments he now remembered as vividly as if he had been watching a film. Iruka turned the pages with lightly shaking hands as he tried not to make much noise so his little girl wouldn't wake up.

Kakashi holding his hand, watching him sleep, nursing him as he was sick and vice versa. Pictures of himself and the older man on Kakashi's birthday, the one during which Izumo and Kotetsu had forced Iruka to wear bunny ears and a tail, on top of making him jump out of the cake. It had of course been quite a surprise for every single one of the guests, who had then broken to whistles and cat-calls, laughing until the scarecrow's jealous stares silenced them as he walked up to his lover and covered his naked torso with his own shirt, kissing him silly for doing something so corny.

One photo in particular made him chuckle softly, it was the two of them, showing peace signs stark naked at what appeared to be the Hokages office. Of course the dolphin remembered the incident clearly now, he couldn't believe he had been going in and out of Tsunade-sama's office for three years with a straight face, but after all he had had no recollection of what they had done back then.

"_It's said that if a pair of lovers manages to sneak into the Hokages office and have sex on his or her desk, they will live __happily ever after! Isn't it intriguing? It's also said that one must take a photo for proof and keep it safe, or else it won't work" Kakashi looked at his dolphin with glistening eyes, like a child in front of a big pile of Christmas presents he was about__ to open. _

"_No." Iruka's voice was firm and __determined__ as he sta__red up at his silver haired lover, a lopsided smirk accompanied with a light frown on his face "I'm not going to sneak in Tsunade-sama's office to have sex on her desk just because of an urban legend Kakashi; I thought you were smarter than that."_

"_But Ruka! I want __to be together forever!" the older man whined and used his best puppy-eyes-look, trying to make the chunin take his words back and agree with him. Ir__uka rolled his eyes, Kakashi was__ such__ a child sometimes,__ no kidding._

"_No. Suck it up like the big boy you are supposed to be__."_

Iruka smiled and his face flushed a little as he remembered how the scarecrow had reacted to his choice of words which had been completely unintended. Well of course he had eventually given in to Kakashi, since the man was especially annoying and childish when he was denied something he really wanted, like his oh-so-precious Icha Icha, as a good example

It was all because the jounin had to deal with such brutal things during their missions that normal people couldn't possibly have coped with what they did and saw. That was why, to everyone's inconvenience, the groups of elite ninja called 'jounin' were definitely made up of the weirdest shinobi each hidden village could come up with.

Outside the village 'jounin' were ruthless killing machines, feared by their enemies, honored and well respected by the civilians of the villages they protected. However what most of the ordinary villagers didn't know was that jounin weren't quite as heroic in real life as they might have appeared to be when looking at reading their mission reports and other achievements.

In reality, the group of jounin were definitely an odd bunch. They'd read porn in broad daylight or sexually harass anyone and everyone in sight regardless of gender, age or other 'irrelevant' matters. They'd whirl around in green spandex and munch on sharp, poisoned weapons. The list was endless, every jounin had some kind of quirk or fetish, some stuck to one, some had many.

In Kakashi's case, he'd either just act like a five-year-old, annoying people with whatever he could come up with, or he'd come up with the most ridiculous 'quests' to entertain himself.

Actually, he had been carrying out one of those quests when they first had met, or so both of them had thought. Later on, it had been revealed that in fact, his quest had been planned carefully by other jounin who were just as bored as Kakashi had been. Not that the dolphin actually minded, since that had lead them to start their relationship.

After they had started dating, Kakashi's quests had of course been pretty much revolving around his chunin lover, meaning he had always come up with the craziest plans of how to get into said chunin's pants. At first, Iruka had been very hesitant about everything, which had of course only encouraged the mischievous jounin who had groped and kissed him on every occasion, not caring about people's opinions like the younger man had back then.

Having sex in the Hokage's office had indeed been a pretty difficult quest to accomplish, even though they had already been together for some years at that point. Thinking back, Iruka remembered he had given in only to make the older man stop his childish pranks and pouting, even though he had realized that giving in like that would only make Kakashi learn everything was possible with the right amount of begging and unbearable behavior from his part.

Not to say that it wouldn't have been fun, the extra adrenaline running in their veins because of the risk of getting caught and the thrill of half expecting someone walking in on them all the time had definitely been arousing. They had also been a little too careless, not to say they would have been caught in the act, but they had forgotten Iruka's hair tie on the table after they were done.

No harm had come out of it though, since it was a simple brown hair tie that anyone could have used, but the dolphin could still have sworn he received some smug looks from Tsunade after that

Yes, Iruka would definitely have done it again if asked, but it had sounded like a crazy idea at the time, and it still did, but it had definitely been fun.

Then of course, there was the photo of that one snowy day they had been playing outside with team seven, along with Kakashi's Ninken.

Naruto had just showed up on their door on that day, having dragged with him an enthusiastic Sakura and a seemingly annoyed Sasuke, demanding for a snow ball fight. Since their numbers had been uneven, the jounin had agreed to summon his Ninken to join the fun, since they had needed some exercise and they loved the snow as much as the blond haired kid did.

Of course the dogs hadn't been able to actually throw balls, but they had had a lot of other means to cover their targets with snow, like everyone except Kakashi had been surprised to notice.

Iruka had prepared food for them when they got back exhausted so he wouldn't have to start making it when he was tired, along with hot chocolate in thermos bottles to take with them to wherever they were going. Their group had ended up heading for one of the training grounds, meaning the one that included Konoha's Memorial Stone, since Kakashi had wanted Obito to see his family in its fully extended, miscellaneous glory

They had divided into two teams; team Ramen having consisted of Iruka, Naruto, Sasuke, Urushi, Shiba and Bisuke. Team Power had Kakashi and Sakura along with the rest of the scarecrow's summonings excluding Bull, who had had a cold.

Naturally they had had a couple of hours of peace at first, during which they had built quite impressive fortresses which had acted as their headquarters during the actual battle. Afterwards, they had all been dripping wet with a mix of sweat and melting snow but everyone had been smiling and laughing as they had gone back to the two adults' place, heading for the onsen directly after grabbing the food Iruka had prepared earlier. Even the gloomy Uchiha had been almost smiling that day, which had really been something.

'We'll have to go with Rin when there's enough snow again' Iruka thought, smiling sheepishly with a glazed look in his eyes as he turned the pages and let the memories settle in their right places one by one.

Finally, on the last page of the album there were two photos the dolphin had waited for the most. The first one was of Kakashi, sleeping on their bed, looking as innocent and carefree as a child. He was hugging Iruka's dolphin plush toy so hard that the cloth, which had stains on the spots the older man had drooled on, was wrinkled and it made the dolphin look kind of funny. His silver shock of hair was falling gently over the scarred left eye, thin lips slightly ajar and a small trickle of drool making pooling to form yet another dark stain on the doll's blue fabric. Kakashi looked a lot younger like that, vulnerable and oblivious to the harsh world they lived in.

Iruka had taken that one after an all-nighter of paper grading; it had really cheered the tired academy teacher up at the time.

The other one had both of them in it. They were sleeping; Iruka was curled up in a fetal position and his lover was resting right behind him, spooning the smaller body with his face half buried in his chestnut brown hair and arms wrapped protectively around his body. It wasn't so obvious, but Iruka knew they were holding hands, their slender fingers intertwined together under the soft covers. He had almost been embarrassed to death back when he had first seen the photo, since it had been handed to him as a birthday present by Naruto and Sakura who had only been twelve at the time. How the kids had managed to sneak in on them was still a mystery to Iruka, but he had never gotten an answer from the two teens.

Iruka traced the edges of the photos with his fingers with a soft smile on his face. His tears had stopped flowing some time ago so he wiped the remaining drops with his hand, and was surprised as he caught a smaller hand doing the exact same thing.

"Rin-chan, did I wake you up?" he asked and put the photo album away so he could lift the girl to sit on his lap. She looked sleepy, but shook her head in denial. Iruka glanced at the clock and was surprised, had it really been two hours?

Rin leaned against the dolphin and nuzzled her head against his chest. Then she pointed at the photo album in his hands, obviously wanting to look at the photos. Iruka hesitated for a second, but ended up putting the album so that they could both see its contents.

"Who is that?" the girl asked and pointed at Kakashi.

'Well, she has never actually seen him after all' the chunin realized. "It's the prince" he said smiling and started telling new stories to his daughter.

Maybe he had been hesitant about sealing his memories, but now that he was looking at the pictures with Rin, Iruka was sure it had been the right thing to do. Had he not done so, he would never have been able to raise the little girl properly and she was definitely not something worth giving up.

Besides, it had all ended well, hadn't it? He remembered now, when it was important. Grieving his life away while Kakashi had been gone wouldn't have been something the older man would have wanted.

"Daddy, you stopped." Rin complained as the dolphin's mind started drifting and he stopped telling the story.

"Sorry sweetie" he answered and got back to telling, everything was going to be fine, maybe their story would have a happy ending after all.

_oOo_


	6. Let Me help You

A:N/ Yay, the 6th chapter is up! I've noticed that a chapter per month is a nice pace, so I'm going to keep it even though I always want to post before one month's up from the previous one.

This chapter might be a little hard to understand, I tried to make it clear but you never know, sorry about that and the shortness. Please leave comments, I really appreciate them, they always brighten my day! :))

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><p>6th chapter<p>

**_Let Me help You_**

_oOo  
><em>

Kakashi was back in the darkness. He was just sitting around, waiting for the time to pass. The problem though, there was no time in that place. No minutes or hours, no days or weeks. Only the darkness. He didn't know how much time had gone by as he sat, but it sure felt like forever. At some point, Kakashi started to hear footsteps.

Was there someone besides him in this horrid place? He raised his hands to his mouth and shouted into the black void, but no one answered. Still, the steps were definitely getting closer and closer, a little at a time. Time, there it was again, he thought and laughed. He felt like he was slowly going crazy with the loneliness. Then again, he was only human and no human being could stand being alone forever.

"Iruka" he said when he realized the owner of the footsteps had arrived right next to him. Kakashi wrapped his arms around the younger man, but there was something wrong. He knew it as soon as he touched Iruka, who didn't hug him back. Instead, the chunin shook him off and took a step back, leaving Kakashi confused.

"Why are you here?" he asked. What was that place anyway?

Suddenly, there was a little girl and a faceless woman standing with Iruka.

"What…?" Kakashi frowned, he didn't understand.

"Daddy!"

The girl held her hands to Iruka, who picked the girl up from the ground and held her. His other hand he gave to the woman who took it and intertwined their fingers in a way Kakashi had always used to. "I'm sorry Kakashi-san" Iruka said with gentleness in his voice, but the jounin was too busy staring at the little girl who had Iruka's hair, his eyes…

Kakashi's eyes widened as he realized what was going on, his lips parted but no sound came out.

"I moved on Kakashi, I forgot you" Iruka said and smiled to the little girl, gently pressing his nose against hers. His smile he gave to the child made Kakashi's heart ache as he watched them. "I have a family now, a real one. It's what I always wanted and what I never could have had with you" he continued, every word feeling like a stab to the older man's heart.

"No…" Kakashi denied and tried to take a step closer, but he couldn't move.

"Yes Kakashi, I did. You were gone for so long. Three years Kakashi. What was I supposed to do?" Iruka's voice sounded different now, accusing. The gentle tone was gone and his harsh, bitter words cut deep. "You left me; it's your own fault."

And just like that, they started to walk away hand in hand, leaving Kakashi unable to do anything else but to watch them draw away slowly, hearing every single step.

As soon as Iruka was gone, the jounin regained control of his body. His legs gave out and he fell on his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. He had nothing left. Living without Iruka wasn't worth it, it was hell. Kakashi couldn't calm down and control his breath so his sobs started to become faster and faster, until it got to the point that he started to hyperventilate and had to crouch down.

'Why am I fighting?' he wondered. There was nothing to live for and after all, he didn't even know if he was alive anymore.

Iruka had left him, it was the cruel truth. Everything the dolphin had said was true, that he had to admit. Kakashi knew that the brunette had always wanted a family, maybe not a wife but a kid which the older man could never have given his lover.

It was his fault and his alone; he had broken up with Iruka before leaving after all, although he had kept hoping that the younger man would still be waiting for him when he came back. How selfish was that? What kind of a person left someone and expected to be welcomed with open arms after three years? Maybe it was better after all, Iruka could have what he'd always dreamed of and Kakashi...

'I'll just give up' he decided resignedly and stopped fighting, letting the sweet darkness wash over him.

oOo

Kakashi opened his eyes.

No change, except for the fact he wasn't hyperventilating anymore.

"Yo"

The jounin was surprised when he heard someone's voice.

A very familiar voice, he realized and raised his head, only to look straight in his own eyes.

His first thought was that he'd finally gone insane, but right after that he noticed it wasn't really him.

The other Kakashi had an ANBU uniform, complete with a mask hanging on the side of its head, revealing its face which was very much like Kakashi's except for the eyes. They both shared an indigo blue eye, but where Kakashi had a sharingan, the other had something that only looked like it except the colors were reversed, red marks on black background.

"Who are you" Kakashi asked after the first shock had settled and he had regained his ability to speak. He scrambled up on his feet, observing their differences and similarities. Their height was the same, as was their build and yet there was something very unsettling about the other man.

"Isn't it obvious?" the Other Him answered with a mocking tone its voice as it spoke "I'm you, the strong you" Kakashi didn't understand, so the Other Him continued.

"I'm the You that doesn't feel pain, the You that you once were."

Even though Kakashi didn't quite understand the whole 'You you used to be' shit, there was something that interested him.

"No pain?" he asked and the ANBU nodded to him and crouched down to be closer to Kakashi.

"I can help you" it said and grinned mischievously "I can make your pain go away".

For a moment Kakashi hesitated, what did the Other Him mean? As if it had been able to read his thoughts, the Other Kakashi continued.

"I can make you forget him, the pain he makes you feel" it offered, but that made Kakashi grow wary and he took a step back from the other.

"I don't want to forget" he denied "Even if it's not with me, I'm happy as long as he is, that's what matters" but the Other Him didn't look like he was going to give up that easily.

"That's what you think" it said with an unreadable tone of voice and reached its hand towards Kakashi, who didn't have the time to prevent it.

Kakashi watched helplessly as the ANBU touched his chest lightly with its fingers, eyes growing wide with horror as the pale fingertips sank through his skin into his body. He could feel the cold digits wrapping themselves around his heart as the other's hand sank deeper in him. Kakashi felt the squeeze before he saw the other man's muscles contracting and his mouth opened to let out a scream as an enormous amount of pain shot through him like the lightning.

He screamed like he never had before, his heart was burning and being ripped apart, torn in little pieces. The pain was amazing, indescribable. Every cell in his body seemed to be in fire, his eyes burned and his head seemed to be about to explode.

Finally the pain eased as the Other Him withdrew its hand from his chest.

Kakashi fell on the ground as soon as he was released. He was rapidly gasping for air and he feared he'd start hyperventilating again. Then the Other Kakashi helped him to turn around on his back, which made it a little bit easier to breath. That however made him unable not to look at the Other Him, who was now looming right over him in an unnatural position.

"That's how he'll make you feel every day you see him walking around with his little girl and wife. That's what you'll be dealing with every single day for the rest of your life" the ANBU stated, although concerning what he'd just done it seemed more like a threat.

Kakashi closed his eyes and thought about his feelings and the dolphin. Would it matter if he stopped loving him now? Would it matter if he forgot?

No it wouldn't, he realized. After all, it wasn't any of his business anymore. He was happy as long as the younger man was, and since Iruka obviously had something better now than him and didn't care about him anymore, how would it hurt him if he forgot?

"You won't be able to stand it, not with your temper and amount of jealousy" the Other Him hissed and touched Kakashi's hair, soflty petting it like it cared about him "You'll end up hurting him Kakashi."

They both fell silent, and had Kakashi not seen the ANBU looming over him and felt its fingers running on his body, he could have sworn it had disappeared.

"Okay" he whispered after what had seemed like hours "do it".

The Other Kakashi's eyes widened as it reached its hand towards the jounin, who waited for the pain to strike. However the pain never came, instead Kakashi felt his pain ease and his body lighten, his mind starting to fade as something happened to him. Before his consciousness had completely faded away, he heard one last whisper.

"_You're mine now"_

_oOo_

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><p>edit: I took off the italic since it is indeed hard to read, I had meant to do it from the beginning but apparently I forgot. It should still be obvious that this is happening inside Kakashi's head, or so I hope ;) 7.7.2012<p> 


	7. You don't know Me

A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry about taking time, I thought it'd be smarter to start a regular posting rhythm from the beginning of the month and not the middle so I waited for a little. Also, another thing which is forcing me to go back on my words about a chapter per month is the upcoming JLPT I'm currently studying for.

To make it up to you, I've written some extras that I'm going to start posting here along the main story line, as soon as I can find myself another beta reader. I don't wish to overwork the one who's already doing such a great job with the main story so yeah, I just hope someone bothered to mail me back, why is finding a beta reader so damn difficult every time? (=w=)''

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><p>7th chapter<p>

**_You don't know who I am_**

_oOo  
><em>

Three days had passed since the day at the hospital's old wing and Iruka was getting restless. He was running out of patience, the Hokage had said it would only take a couple of days and it had already been three!

'Calm down' he thought to himself, surely she hadn't forgotten. There was something going on with Kakashi, something that prevented them from transferring him.

Okay, now he was even more concerned.

'I'll go crazy if this goes on' the dolphin cursed in his mind and tried to focus on the mission report he had been handed a while ago. It was neatly written with a nice handwriting, unlike the ones Kakashi always used to hand him.

The older man's reports were always dirty with god only knew what on them, burnt, half eaten and filled with the most horrible scrawling he had ever had to read. Even his cute little first graders didn't write so poorly, but the jounin had refused to change his bad habit, no matter how much Iruka had threatened or bribed him.

The brunette's shift at the mission assignment desk was almost over, thank god for that since his restlessness made it very difficult to concentrate on anything, much less on paperwork. He had been fidgeting nervously, staring at the walls doing nothing useful for about an hour when the clock on the wall finally showed four, meaning it was time to head home.

Iruka sighed; he'd probably have to wait one more day for news. He started packing his things up, but a female voice interrupted him just as he was about to say goodbye to his unfortunate colleagues who still had a couple of hours left.

"Iruka-sensei, if you'd please come to Tsunade-sama's office." Shizune said and smiled to the chunin, whose face lit up since he knew what that meant.

"Right away!" Iruka answered and managed to keep walking and not start running, for it would have been rude to barge into the Hokages office like that, even though people seemed to do it all the time.

"Tsunade-sama" he said and the Hokage turned around. She had been looking at something from her windows, probably the liquor shop or the gambling hall, but Iruka didn't really care.

"I promised to let you know first when he would get transferred didn't I?" she asked and smiled "Well, he has. You can go see him. I've arranged for Shizune to pick Rin up from kindergarten so you don't have to worry about her. She's been talking about what a lovely little girl your daughter is ever since that last time, so you don't have to worry about her being bothered by this."

Iruka couldn't believe his ears. Although he was sure he wanted Rin to see the scarecrow, he knew better than to shove a child in Kakashi's face right after he'd woken up. Apparently Tsunade had also thought the same, and for that he was grateful.

"Thank you Hokage-sama!" Iruka said with his smile reaching from one ear to the other.

"Don't thank me. And I've told you to call me Tsunade, Hokage makes me sound so old." She said laughing and watched as the chunin hurried out of the room.

_oOo  
><em>

The dolphin was, of course, the first one to enter Kakashi's hospital room. He almost chuckled for the room was cold white and crude, everything the scarecrow hated about hospitals in one. He walked right next to the bed and leaned to brush a stray lock of silver hair off Kakashi's face. The older man still looked weak and haggard, but at least he was a little better now.

Not too long after Iruka, there were some jounin entering the room as well. All of Kakashi's fellow jounin sensei's and Naruto and Sakura of course, had come to see their colleague who had been dead to the world for over three years. None of them could believe it, but everyone sounded pretty happy about it.

"Iruka! I'm so glad for you." Kurenai patted Iruka's back and hugged him from behind. She was the one who had originally set the two teachers up and eventually made them a couple, with the help of Sakura, Naruto and Tsunade of course. Naruto was there as well, grinning at Iruka from over Kurenai's shoulder.

"Happy, aren't we?" he said, and the chunin gave him a well-chosen smile.

Iruka was a little worried though with the room packed with people and most important of all, jounin, he wondered if they were going to wake Kakashi up. That seemed to be why some of them had come, and sure enough it didn't take long for Genma to open his loud mouth.

"So when's he going to wake up? I hope sometime soon, it's not very funny to just stare at him" he said, but was silenced by Asuma's sarcastic remark.

"Well if you keep shouting like that, I don't suppose it's going to take long".

As to prove his words true, Kakashi frowned and opened up his eye taking a look at the crowd, which fell silent.

_oOo  
><em>

Kakashi woke up to people hassling around him. He recognized the voices of Genma and Raidou, as well as Gai, Asuma, Kurenai and naturally Naruto and Sakura. From the disgusting antiseptic smell, and the way everyone's voices echoed in the room he could easily tell he was in a hospital, which made him frown.

'God I hate hospitals' he thought and noticed he had a headache. What a wonderful way to wake up.

After a few minutes he felt like he had gathered enough strength to face the world, so he cracked his indigo blue eye open, after which the blessed silence fell. He let himself get used to the harsh light before trying to speak, since he wanted to see who he was talking to. After his eye was comfortable with the whiteness and light, he turned his head to his side to see the group of people staring at him.

"Hell right Asuma, not even the dead could rest in peace with you people making so much noise" he said, his voice was hoarse from the lack of use and sounded way off even to his own ears, not to mention that it also hurt a bit. Still, it was still his voice all right.

For a split second everyone stayed quiet and stared, after which they started to laugh and chatter again.

"Welcome back Kakashi!"

"You look like shit man!"

"Where have you been for the past years Kakashi?"

"My Youthful Rival, good to see your Manly Face again!"

They were all talking at the same time, questions and all sorts of random phrases attacked the silver haired jounins' mind as he tried to make sense of them and figure out who had said what, but it was an impossible task. Couldn't they just shut up? He was a patient for god's sake and if that was not enough, he had just woken up too.

'I'm not-' He thought, but someone else finished his thoughts for him.

"Calm down everyone, Kakashi's not much of a morning person." A man's voice said and Kakashi blessed the owner of that voice, whoever it was.

"But it's not morning." Genma protested, bright as ever.

"You know that's not what I meant, he just woke up so he's a bit off." the man's voice helped him again. Who was it?

Normally people didn't notice the fact that the Copy Nin was not in fact a morning person since they never got the chance to see him that early. One of his reasons on never being on time for meetings in the mornings was precisely that he needed his time before he could start thinking and working properly. On missions however, he woke up earlier than others, took the last shift or just sucked it up somehow.

So how had this person noticed?

He had to turn his head again to see who the speaker was, and to his surprise it was Naruto's old academy teacher. What was the man's name again? Oh yes, Umino Iruka, that was it. Still, it didn't explain how he knew that Kakashi wasn't a morning person, he barely even knew the said teacher. Suddenly the scarecrow felt his head throbbing again and he stopped thinking about Iruka.

Who cared if he had noticed Kakashi didn't like mornings? It wasn't like he was trying to hide it or anything and now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure Asuma probably knew it too. 'But still, why is he even here, I don't remember ever having talked to him much after that incident at the chunin exam…'

"Well I must say that it's good that at least someone knows what he's like, since he's a real mystery to the rest of us." Naruto laughed and the others agreed, also laughing.

"That's right, I took care of him once after he had been injured during a mission, and oh boy it was hell. I never want to go through something like that again!" Asuma's bear like laughter made the others laugh even harder, and eventually Genma and Raidou joined the fun.

"It's like he thinks he's invincible, no rest, no rehab and he's back on the field again. When you're sick you should be in bed and rest so you can get better." Genma said and glanced at his lover, who knew what he was aiming for.

"Yeah, well I bet our little dolphin here has no trouble keeping Kakashi in _bed._" Raidou answered, purposely emphasizing the last word. Iruka's ears were already burning as the senbon sucking man opened his mouth

"Well I do believe that but didn't I also say he'd need to _rest_?"

Everyone burst in laughter once again, but Kakashi didn't laugh.

"Why the hell would he have any better luck in restraining me than Asuma did?" he asked, still sounding like some kind of over-sized crow "He's a chunin for crying out loud, I'd beat him in no time without a single drop of sweat" he continued, wondering why everyone was suddenly looking at him like he had grown another head or something. It annoyed the Copy Nin, who frowned angrily at them for behaving so weirdly.

"Oh My Youthful Rival!" Gai started, but fortunately someone was quick and intelligent enough to silence him as soon as Kakashi's facial expression changed from being annoyed to wanting to murder someone. Instead of him it was Naruto who spoke first, for it was about his beloved big brother that they were talking about after all.

"Uh, but you wouldn't treat him the same way as you treated Asuma-sensei, that was the point" he explained, maybe Kakashi was still a bit cloudy from his coma or something to understand their humor. To everyone's surprise, the wounded jounin showed no signs of getting the joke, he only stared back angrily.

"I don't get it, why should I treat him differently, it's not like I know him that well anyway" he finally said when no one seemed to want to offer a more clarifying explanation, but what he said seemed to confuse his colleagues and students even more.

'Really, what the hell is up with these people today? And why are they even here, I don't remember having woken up like this before either so why now?' he thought and shut his eye, trying to silence the annoying little noise in his head which worsened his headache.

"You don't know who I am." Iruka said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Kakashi opened his eye again and looked at the academy sensei. The man looked like he had been hit very hard with something; he was definitely very close to bursting into tears. Somehow the sight made the Copy Nin's heart ache painfully; he regretted his earlier behavior and unconsciously hurting the younger man.

Immediately after realizing that, the anger washed over him. Why did he have to feel bad about pointing out the obvious? And why was it that his headache only worsened when he thought about the chunin? It was definitely not his day, why couldn't everyone just go to hell and leave him alone?

"I do, didn't I say so earlier? You're Naruto's old academy teacher, the one who didn't want team seven to be handed to me in the first place. Your rank is chunin, besides teaching at the academy you also work at the mission assignment desk" Kakashi listed what he knew about the chunin, but somehow everyone seemed to expect more from him.

"That's it" he said as he could still feel that the others were waiting if he'd say something else as well.

Why was it so hard to get he had finished his sentence? Should he have said 'period' at the end or something?

"Now that you know who you are, if you'd please be so kind and get the hell out of here, I'm tired and my head hurts" he barked, and decided to continue since he wasn't so sure about the others getting his message either "and the same thing goes for everyone, I don't recall inviting you lot over for a party".

Naruto was the first one to react; he charged at the wounded Copy Nin with his hand fisted, anger burning in his clear blue eyes.

"Why you-!" he shouted, but Iruka was faster and managed to stop him by stepping between Kakashi and the enraged boy, using his own body as a shield to block the enraged kid who still tried to get past him when he grabbed a hold of the boy's orange jacket

"We're in a hospital Naruto, he's a patient!" the chunin said strictly as he held his former student so he couldn't do whatever he had been about to.

"Do I look like I give a shit if Bakashi sensei's a patient? What I do care about is you and that bastard son of a bitch just-!" he tried to reason, but Iruka just shook his head to the boy.

"No Naruto. Please. I'll go, and so should the rest of you" he said, his voice was trembling a little but he stayed firm and didn't let go until the blonde had calmed down so much that he couldn't be considered a threat anymore.

After letting Naruto go, Iruka looked like he was about to turn around and say something to the scarecrow, but instead he rushed out of the room, leaving the others behind.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted and went after him after having made a rude hand sign at the silver haired jounin.

The others seemed to be frozen for a minute, but then they also left, eyeing Kakashi as they went out. The Copy Nin could tell some were angry at him, some disappointed and some just plain confused, but he didn't know the reason.

When they were gone, the scarecrow relaxed and closed his eyes, enjoying his peace and silence. He had just experienced the weirdest waking up at a hospital he could recall and it bothered him to some extent. His colleagues had never grouped up to see him like that before, usually it was just the ones he'd been on the mission with, or then he just woke up alone.

And then of course, there was the academy teacher, Iruka Umino.

Why had he been present and why the hell had everyone been joking like that? Kakashi tried to come up with possible reasons but found none; instead he got a pounding headache which made him nauseous.

'Whatever, who even cares about him, I'll just stop thinking about difficult things for now' he decided, but for some reason the sad face of the brunette chunin just didn't go away, following him all the way to his dreams.

_oOo  
><em>

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><p>AN: Please, please review! It's very important to me to know what you're thinking about the story! And thank you for reading :))

- littlerose94


	8. I have A Mission for You

A/N: Aaaaaaaand I'm back! We're back! With my new beta reader Radkoko! I'm so very sorry about the wait, I had some trouble finding someone interested in beta reading this story but fortunately my lovely Rad told she'd (he'd?) proofread for me, I love you Rad!

And now to the story itself...

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><p>8th chapter<p>

_**I have a mission for you**_

_oOo_

Iruka slipped out of the room while the others were still frozen from shock. He heard Naruto calling for him, but he didn't stop or turn back. He felt the tears burning his eyes as he exited the building, but there was no way he was going to cry before he got home, he didn't want anyone seeing his tears.

"Iruka-sensei!" the Kyuubi boy caught him right before the last seal that would have transported Iruka home. The dolphin sighed and tried to calm down, turning to the boy who was holding onto his flack-jacket, looking worried.

"What is it Naruto," he said, trying to sound like he wasn't about to cry anytime soon, but he could see that the blonde boy wasn't buying his act. They had known each other for too long and he was no longer the naïve kid he once used to be.

"I-" the boy seemed to be at loss of words, which, had the timing and situation been different, would surely have made him smile. Only a couple of people were able to leave Naruto speechless. "I know he didn't mean it Iruka-sensei, he's just confused."

"Nice try Naruto," the dolphin said and ruffled Naruto's hair, "Thank you for trying."

Naruto let go of his big brother and looked at him one more time before Iruka transported himself home. The chunin could see he was sorry and wanted to help him, but no one except Kakashi could've done that right then.

_oOo  
><em>

After Iruka had gone, Naruto was left in front of the hospital alone. He watched as the jounin senseis walked past him, all muttering about Kakashi's behavior. Anger and sadness filled his mind as he remembered his jounin teacher's harsh words and the hurt look on his big brothers face as the man realized his lover, for whom he had been loyally waiting for three long years, didn't know him anymore.

It was just so wrong.

'I'm going to show him how to treat my Iruka-sensei!' he swore in his mind and turned on his heels to go back inside, almost bumping into Sakura.

"Where are you going Naruto?" she asked and put her arms across her chest, although she already knew what the blonde boy wanted to do.

"I'm going to uh, _question_ Bakashi-sensei," Naruto answered with the fastest make-believe synonym to 'Smash-his-brain-in-and-make-him-regret' he could come up with. He knew he didn't stand a chance fooling the hawk-eyed girl who, much to his surprise sighed and looked at him like she understood his feelings.

"Well I guess I can't blame you for wanting to do that. To tell the truth I'm also worried, not only about Kakashi-sensei's health, but Iruka-sensei's as well. You do remember how he was when… well you know," she admitted, not wanting to say out loud the last part.

Iruka's phase of depression after Kakashi's disappearance was something she didn't want to talk about when Naruto was near. She knew the boy felt awful about not having been around to help his father figure when he had needed him the most. In fact, no one ever mentioned it to Naruto, because it would make the boy put on an expression most unsuitable for his usually bright and smiling face.

Naruto smiled to Sakura, who seemed to agree with his idea, and was just about to say 'Let's go then', when the girl continued.

"But, I'm not going back in, nor letting you do that. My opinion as a medic is that Kakashi-sensei is still in a vulnerable condition after all he's been through, and that he should not be disturbed or made agitated like that again." she raised her hand as Naruto was obviously about to shout he didn't care. Surprisingly, the gesture was enough to silence the teen.

"Which means I will not let you go in now, you're too angry to think straight. It's for Iruka-sensei's best as well. Think about it for a minute, will you? If I let you go in there to have a few 'words' with Kakashi-sensei, and he still wouldn't remember. Then what? You'd keep punching him until he remembered?" Sakura's words were harsh, but effective.

"Uh, I didn't say that I would…" Naruto muttered, but his blush didn't leave much to debate.

"Exactly. And on top not accomplishing anything you'd up hurting him, which would only make Iruka-sensei sadder than he already is, am I wrong?"

Her reasoning was flawless, and it made Naruto grimace as he realized he'd have to sit and wait around if he wanted Iruka to be happy again. So not his style, but for his big brother's sake he could do it.

"All right I got it, you can stop now," he sighed and slumped down on the ground, crossing his legs as he looked up to the pink haired girl with a grin, "but when he gets better I'm going to make sure he remembers again."

_oOo  
><em>

Iruka opened the door of his apartment, making both Shizune and Rin jump with surprise. Fortunately the medic could see he wanted, or rather needed, some privacy so she took the little girl and her pig, and went out with a simple, "Let me know when you want her back".

Once Iruka was left alone, he let his tears fall and his breath became irregular as he crumpled on the sofa and cried his heart out. Why? Just when he'd thought his life would be back to normal again, if not even better than before, having a silver haired lover and an adorable little girl. He had always wanted a family, kids as well even if he'd never told the jounin for he had known Kakashi would have felt guilty for 'taking his dreams from him'.

The gentle dolphin pulled his knees up to his chest and wiped his eyes furiously, who the hell cared if they'd swell and he'd look like shit for the rest of the day? It made him remember the times when he had cried in front of the older man, who had held his hands and wiped off his tears slowly and gently, knowing that Iruka would hate himself afterwards for rubbing his eyes too hard. Well that surely didn't help.

His silver haired lover had also taught him to hold his breath while crying too violently, it helped to get his breath steadier when done right, but Iruka didn't manage to do it since it hurt too much to think about what the older man had said back then. Not wanting to start hyperventilating, Iruka tried to clear his mind but it wasn't working, his memories were flowing too strongly, too freely inside his head. 'I shouldn't have touched that album' he cursed in his mind sadly, though he didn't really mean it.

It was like that, miserable and alone with his heart broken, that Iruka cried himself to sleep.

_oOo  
><em>

Kakashi had just fallen asleep again when the next disturber of his peace and silence stormed in. He decided it was easier to pretend to be asleep than to face whomever it was that had come to wake him up, but his little plan didn't seem to work as he could sense that the person didn't go away.

After a while, he heard the Hokage's pissed off voice and almost sighed out loud. "Hatake Kakashi, how dare you pretend to be asleep you little brat? You know you're not fooling anyone in this room, so open your eye before I make you," she threatened and Kakashi gave up, opening his blue eye so he could face the angry blonde woman. She was standing a lot closer than what he would have liked, considering that she seemed to be enraged for some unknown reason.

"You know, I've seen surprisingly many angry people today, considering that I just came back from hell," he pointed out and waited for the Hokage to release her wrath upon him. That however never happened, since even if she looked like she could've skinned him alive and fed to her slugs, she managed to control herself surprisingly well. Only the thick vein pulsing on her left temple indicated her anger by the time she was done calming herself.

"And you have no idea why that could be?" she asked with a calm voice, which forebode major tongue lashing if his answer didn't please her.

Kakashi thought for a while and almost ended up just shrugging, but he saw the vein pulse and grow a little, so he decided it was safer to say something after all.

"I don't understand why, but it seems to be because I don't know that academy teacher, whatever his name was again," he spat out, feeling his headache coming back.

"You really don't know?" Tsunade asked and observed her patient's facial expression as he thought of an answer.

"No ma'am I really have no idea," the Copy-Nin answered with a straight face.

The Hokage seemed to be pleased with his answer. Maybe she'd realized there was no reason for Kakashi to be lying about something that trivial and meaningless. Still, she didn't seem to fully trust him as she repeated the question once more, in a bit different way.

"Think carefully about it brat, think right now and tell me what you're thinking," she said and waited for an answer.

Okay, well if it was thinking that would appease the Hokage, then he could as well think, it wouldn't hurt, Kakashi thought. Only it wasn't true. It seemed that every time he so much as though about the chunin teacher, his head started to protest quite painfully. The more he thought, the more it hurt and not even the threat of Tsunade's wrath could make the pain go away.

"I can't do it," he admitted, and raised his hands in a yielding manner as the blonde was obviously about to hit him hard, patient or not.

"It's not that I wouldn't be trying, I really cannot," he said quickly as the blonde woman stopped momentarily, hoping that explaining would maybe spare his life.

Kakashi's words seemed to work. Tsunade calmed down a bit, and her expression changed as she began to think. Whether it was the truthfulness of his words or the reason he couldn't, Kakashi didn't know or care. At least she seemed to have abandoned the thoughts of slaughtering him, and he was happy with that.

"Why do you say you can't," she asked, still observing him with her brows knitted together and eyes locked to Kakashi's, who tried to avoid looking back at her.

"I say that because every time I think about that chunin, my head starts to ache. It gets worse if I keep thinking about him or try to force myself to do it, and I feel like my head's going to explode so excuse me for not wanting to think about him anymore," Kakashi explained and watched the experienced medic think of explanations for his headache.

"And that makes you grumpy," she assumed. It wasn't really a question so the Copy-Nin didn't say anything. "You don't have the slightest idea of what you're doing to him, to you both," she muttered, mostly to herself but Kakashi couldn't help but to get angry. His headache was raging inside his head and he needed some sleep, now.

"Well excuse me for not having a clue why everyone is suddenly so concerned about my wellbeing, I don't recall being exactly the social type so I don't really see why people have done nothing but come to my room to disturb my peace, I'm sick and tired for god's sake!" he snarled and glared at the Hokage, who raised her head and narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"That's exactly the problem, you don't recall it but I'll see that you soon will," she said like she had made up something brilliant, which, however made Kakashi worried about what she was going to do with him.

"Well, I'll leave you to rest then, maybe that'll make you a little easier to deal with," Tsunade said and stormed out of the room with her grand plan forming in her mind.

The Copy-Nin didn't have the energy to think about it for too long, he wanted to, but already after some minutes he started to doze off, his last thought being that a certain chunin was definitely not good news for him.

_oOo  
><em>

"Tsunade-sama, you asked for me?" Iruka was standing in the Hokage's office again.

The day before, he had woken up after a couple of hours of sleep, realizing he had completely forgotten about Rin and Shizune. After having washed his face, he had rushed to the office to take his little girl home. She hadn't had the time to miss him too much, though she had apparently been asking about him, since he'd never left her in anyone's care for that long, if the kindergarten didn't count.

"Yes. I have a mission for you," the blond woman said with a big smile on her face, revealing that she was obviously pleased with herself for some reason, which still remained unknown to Iruka.

"From this day on, your mission is to see that a certain Hatake Kakashi's rehabilitation goes as planned and that he rests and trains no more or less than what is written in his weekly schedule, which I by the way have personally planned. I know as well as you do that if he doesn't have someone watching over him, he'll just train until he passes out from exhaustion or chakra depletion, and that's not the desirable outcome," she explained, and waited for a reaction from Iruka.

The dolphin was left speechless for a while; he tried to think of the mission from different point of views.

It was definitely the chance he'd needed to try and make his way back to Kakashi's life, but on the other hand, he'd be dealing with an easily irritable and bored jounin who already seemed to have something against him. Not to mention the emotional strain it would put him under. Kakashi wasn't exactly the kind to watch his language, especially if he didn't consider the person he was talking to important.

The chunin couldn't help but to think his chances of becoming either insane, a corpse, or Kakashi's lover were about the same, which wasn't very reassuring. Still, he had to give it a shot right? He did however have some questions that needed answers before he could make the right decision.

"But if I were to become his, uh, attendant, then what would happen to my position in the academy? I'm pretty tied up with it as it is now, and I have my mission assignment desk job as well, on top of which I have a small daughter" It was true, Iruka already had his hands full with two jobs and a child, how could he possibly manage a third job which practically meant having a very dangerous and bored child to care for all day long. He shivered at the thought of being exhausted from his two other jobs, and still having to watch over a very bored Kakashi, who didn't even remember him.

"Those will be taken care of," the Hokage reassured him, smiling cunningly. "I've already arranged for a substitute teacher for your temporary leave, which will last for some months. We're currently a little short on competent and trustworthy ninjas for the mission assignment desk, but you will have only a couple of shifts, which will all be shortened. You can also take that Hatake brat with you, it'll do him good to see what he usually puts you through when he hands in that piece of shit he calls a mission report"

Tsunade was obviously very amused with the thought of the great Copy-Nin himself sitting at the mission assignment desk, hands full with the kind of crappy reports most of ninjas, or rather jounin, handed in. Iruka couldn't help but agree with the setting being hilarious, though the fact that he'd be the one Kakashi would hate for it, it wasn't very promising. Still, it was definitely something worth seeing, though it might cost him a lot to make the older man actually do the work and not destroy the room in his bored state.

"And Shizune has promised to take good care of your little angel if you ever need a babysitter. Although personally I'd be rather worried though, you might not get her back. She's completely in love with Rin," the Hokage laughed and smiled, it wasn't like she was doing it all for Iruka's sake, with Shizune busy with the kid, she'd be more free to sneak out to gamble and drink.

"All right," the chunin sighed and waited for further instructions.

"Good, you are to start later tonight. Kakashi gets released around 7 o'clock and you'll have to be there to sign the release forms, since I've already told the medics not to let him sign them by himself," she said with a pleased expression on her face. Her plan was going smoothly, soon both men would be happily together again and they'd owe her for that.

"You have until then to make the necessary preparations"

_oOo  
><em>

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><p>AN2: Oooo, I wonder what the rehab will be like? ;) Well, you'll see in time. I'll try to see if we can work up the next chapter in two weeks time with Rad, though I won't promise any kind of schedule. See where it got me last time I did. (=。='') And besides, I'm taking the JLPT in two weeks so I'll be busy for the next 2 weeks, the kanji are slowly killing me!

As always, please review! I'm always open for suggestions for the plot and might add in something minor as long as it doesn't affect the big picture~


	9. You have Two Options

**A/N: **Sooooo here we go, the 9th chapter! My lovely Rad finished beta reading this one quite fast and it was just in time for my Bday, which is why I'm still up doing this even this late in the night though tomorrow's a school day. I just wanted this to be posted today, though I'm just a couple of minutes late, unfortunately. But hey anyway, a bit boring filler chapter ahead, but you can't just jump from point A to point B right away right?

Also, my thanks to every and each of you who have left reviews, getting comments always makes my day brighter!

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><p>9th chapter<p>

**_You have two options_**

_oOo_

At exactly 7 o'clock Iruka entered the hospital. For the whole day starting from the meeting with the Hokage had been busy, as he had been running around the town in attempt to get things in order.

The first thing the chunin had done was to check if Kakashi's old apartment had still been vacant. They had moved together about a year after they had started dating, which made it a total of seven years the apartment had been on open market. Fortunately, no one had dared to buy the Copy Nin's old flat so Iruka was able to get it back for a pretty cheap price from the real estate agent, who seemed to be relieved he finally got rid of said apartment.

The next problem had been the furnishings. First of all, when they had moved in together they had decided to throw away most of their old stuff and get some new furniture, which meant there was no way he could have recreated Kakashi's apartment exactly as it had once been.

Another problem was that he didn't remember all that well what it had been like, since before they moved together they had never spent much time in the older man's Spartan like apartment. What he did remember was that it had been spotlessly clean to the point of being almost sterile, with books and scrolls strictly in alphabetical order, and clothes piled neatly in the wardrobe, but there was something missing within the perfectness. It had just felt so much better to be in Iruka's comfortable, softly decorated apartment, even if it had been smaller than the older man's.

With the help of some old photos he had managed to gather from Kakashi's jounin friends and the ones he had already had in his photo album, the dolphin had somehow managed to put the furniture in the right places at least, even if they weren't the old pieces anymore.

Gai, being a good friend of Kakashi's, had helped him with the task. Of course Gai being Gai, the green beast had insisted on carrying everything while walking on his hands. Hell, he had even bet Iruka that should he fail on his epic task, he would do it all over again a hundred times. Moving the pieces of furniture in and out again wasn't in Iruka's schedule, so he was more than happy to notice that Gai managed carrying them in without problems.

He had been somewhat puzzled with personal hygiene products as well; of course he knew what Kakashi had used when they lived together, as well as the ones he had used while they still weren't; only there was the problem that they didn't sell the old ones anymore. Kakashi would just have to settle with the newer products, which the academy teacher had gathered from around the city

Some of the older man's belongings, like his books and scrolls, Iruka put on the shelves as well as he could, but he doubted they were in the right order. Even if the jounin didn't look like it, he had actually always been pretty strict about how his part of the bookshelf had been arranged. Iruka had never managed understand why the older man looked and mostly acted like a lazy bum, but was so anal about how his books were arranged, or how his clothes were folded.

From a stranger's point of view the apartment might've looked exactly like it had been seven years ago, but Iruka knew he hadn't done a perfect job, only average. He also knew that his handprint could be seen and sensed in the very atmosphere of the rooms but that couldn't be helped.

The gentle dolphin just couldn't stand leaving the rooms as cold and soulless as Kakashi had done when he lived alone, so he'd decorated them with little things like an extra photograph hanging on the wall or a small potted plant in the corner of the room. If the scarecrow didn't like them, he could always just throw them out; at least he would have tried his best.

_oOo_

"What do you mean I can't sign it myself?" Kakashi was almost in verge of tears as he asked for close to the twentieth time for a proper reason.

He was already fully clothed and ready to go, but for some reason the medic wouldn't let him sign the release forms. There had been some kind of trick about the whole thing after all, which was however not so surprising. Kakashi had indeed been kind of wondering why he was free to go that early, especially after that tiny little incident a couple of days ago.

_Kakashi had snuck his clothes from the closet and was just pulling his shirt over his head as he heard someone coming. 'Shit' he thought and hurried up, making it to the window before a certain old monster appeared to his room, immediately becoming red with anger. He could almost hear the veins popping on the Hokage's temple._

_"Hatake Kakashi, what the HELL do you think you're doing?" Tsunade shouted as she saw the jounin, who hopped on the window frame, racing to get out before she'd catch him._

_"Well you see, a lioness came to my room this morning, saying her cubs had been trapped in a cave. I've got to go help her before they die or get eaten by this dragon she said she'd seen near the cave, see you!" he said and waived his hand as he jumped out._

_"Wait brat, we're on the second floor and…!"_

Kakashi had never actually heard the rest of what Tsunade had wanted to tell him, though he now knew what it probably had been. Usually, it would've been something like "your wounds will open", or "you don't have enough chakra". This time it would probably have been "Your leg muscles have shrunk during your captivity, which means you can't jump like you're used to".

Well that fact had made itself obvious to him soon enough.

'Shit' Kakashi had thought as he had realized that even chakra couldn't help him, since he had been using it the wrong way, and there was no time to correct his mistake. That time had been the first and, as Kakashi told himself, last time he'd ever fail his famous escape move like that. He couldn't even remember when the last time he'd been embarrassed like back then, not to mention Tsunade had nagged at him for at least a good couple of hours.

Fortunately he had been on the hospital ground so it only took some seconds for the medics to rush out and surround the dumbfounded jounin, who had been dragged inside and almost tied up to his bed so he wouldn't do anything like that again.

As if it hadn't been humiliating enough that he, the Sharingan Kakashi, had fallen down from a window of the second floor while performing his famous disappearing act; he had also managed to break his left leg in the process, which made the whole situation even more ridiculous.

In other situations he would have been right back on his feet, since the medics could fix a broken leg easily. This time though it wasn't the case, Tsunade had decided he was less dangerous to himself and the others surrounding him if he couldn't move around so easily, so the bitch had told the medics to just put a cast on it. Damn her to hell.

Kakashi could almost sense his mood sinking even deeper than it already was as he thought about the smug grin on the blond woman's face when she had stopped the medics before they could start healing his leg.

"Just leave it, the brat will have to suffer for a while. It'll make him easier to control"

His visible blue eye narrowed and his brows knit together recalling the exact words that damn hag had used. He'd have to make sure he recovered fast and then he'd get back at her somehow. 'I'll show her easy to control' he cursed in his mind and glared at the medic who still wasn't letting him out.

"Hatake-sama, we've been given strict orders not to let you go until someone comes to sign your release forms, in other words you are not to leave by yourself," the medic said finally after, maybe what, half an hour of asking and threatening?

'Fuck my life' Kakashi thought as he heard what the conditions to his release were. Damn him to hell if he was going to let some pretty nurse boss him around. Then again, on second thought the idea of a very pretty, big breasted and, well, just plain sexy nurse caring for him wasn't all too bad. Only as an idea however, he would absolutely not be controlled by anyone, and it was question of principle, not of cup size.

His hopes about an, ahem, well-proportioned nurse were however crushed as he recognized the young man walking to the room.

"Oh, you," Kakashi said without hiding the fact that he was disappointed and didn't like the fact that it was the academy teacher who was going to look after him. Didn't the man have two jobs already? "I didn't know the chunin were that poorly paid," he spit as he glared at the brunette, and especially the wheelchair he had with him.

_oOo_

Already as Iruka turned to the corridor, in which the older man's room was located he could hear the angry jounin demanding why he wasn't free to go yet. He knew Kakashi's mood wouldn't get any better when he'd see the wheelchair, but it was his own fault. Iruka wasn't going to teleport them or carry the jounin home, and it was Kakashi himself who had broken his leg in the first place anyway.

Of course what he could have done was to give the older man crutches, but why would he have done that? Shinobi were trained to make anything and everything into weapons if needed, and there was no way Iruka was going to voluntarily arm an angry, easily irritable jounin with two sticks to use as possible weapons. No way!

Taking a deep breath, the dolphin braced himself and entered in the room.

As soon as he stepped in, Iruka noticed the change in the Copy Nin's facial expression and mood. It hurt him to see the disgust with which Kakashi looked at him, and hear the harsh words, even though he knew all of it wasn't his fault. The disgusted look was mostly directed at the wheelchair, but nevertheless he could not help but to think it was also him that the man was looking at with such discontent.

'I can't show him what I'm feeling' the dolphin thought and tried to look tougher than what he really was. He couldn't let his emotions get him at this point; he could cry and complain at home, but for now he needed to be strong. With strength Iruka hadn't even known he possessed, he managed to put on a straight face with a hint of his teacher mode.

"Time to go Kakashi," he said to the older man who was rocking back and forth on the side of his bed, looking like a mental case. Apparently, the nurse had also thought that giving the jounin crutches would have made everyone's lives harder than what they had to be, which also meant it was very difficult for Kakashi to move anywhere on his own, since his right leg wasn't strong enough to allow him to jump around.

"No"

The famous Copy Nin glared at the wheelchair and refused to go. 'Great' Iruka thought, what a start. He shrugged and frowned at the older man, who was still staring the wheelchair like he was trying to burn it with his intense glare.

"Your choices are to get in the wheelchair and let me take care of you, or you can always stay here in the hospital. I'm not giving you crutches so you can hit me or someone else with them, and I'm not going to carry you around like some kind of overgrown child, so to me it very much looks like you've got two options here." He pointed out to the uncooperative ninja, whose expression worsened, if only possible.

"So which will it be?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes as continued glaring at the wheelchair in silence, shifting his eyes towards the chunin a couple of times as well. He seemed to be considering if he could overpower the medic and Iruka somehow, but evidently he came to the conclusion that it was by no means possible in his current state. Of course he could also have been wondering if Iruka would really make him stay, since it was obvious he was on a mission.

"Okay, take me the hell out of here," the scarecrow grunted after a few minutes, and crossed his arms on his chest as he waited for the dolphin to bring the wheelchair closer.

Kakashi was now safely seated on the chair, after they'd had a small fight on whether he would allow the chunin to help him or not, which he had lost. They were finally good to go as Iruka signed the release forms that the medic handed him.

"Hurry up, I want out of here," the jounin snapped and glared at Iruka, who sighed and rolled his eyes but didn't encourage him by answering. He was a teacher whose work was to cope with difficult kids, and the Kakashi he was currently facing wasn't really that different from his usual students, except for his killing skills and adult body.

"Shut up or I'll change my mind and decide you're not worth my time, in which case you'll just have to spend your time here at the hospital until Tsunade agrees to let you out," he said with a bored tone, trying to keep his amusement hidden. The teacher mode seemed to be helping, it allowed him to keep his emotions in control better than he had expected.

Threatening Kakashi with the hospital had always worked and this time wasn't any different. 'I guess he hasn't really changed, it's not like losing his memories will make his habits and behavior change. It would be nice if he forgot about that stupid orange-'

"Where's my Icha Icha?"

Iruka almost sighed out loud as the older man finished his thoughts about the said orange book. 'Talk about devil, or this time think' he thought to himself dryly and answered.

"Certainly not with me, I wouldn't be caught dead with that kind of crap literature," he said and rolled his eyes, although there was no way Kakashi could have seen the small gesture.

"Well they'd better be somewhere safe; I have the author's signature on each and every single book, not to mention that they're special editions and-"

"Yes, yes, would you just shut up? Your precious porn is safe so stop it already," the chunin was becoming irritated as the older man kept insisting about his stupid books. Why couldn't he remember the important things instead of the different editions of his porn books?

'This is going to be one hell of a mission…'

_oOo_

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><p><strong>AN**: Brickbats and bouquets? Review please!


	10. My Place, not Ours

**A/N: **First I have to say I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, life's gotten busier and I don't have any time to write anything at all right now (though you guys don't have to worry about that for a while). I've moved back to Finland and real life has started to take its toll on me once more, I don't have all day to write fanfiction anymore. Math and physics are a pain in my ass and as much as it saddens me, I simply don't have the time to write after I finish my homework at 11pm or later.

Enough depressing stuff, here's chapter 10 for you, beta read by my lovely Rad who, in the absence of an english grammar book, still has to deal with my nonexistent knowledge of grammar rules (especially the punctuation, hehe). Also, I have also published a one shot, Written Confessions, please go and read it as well! :D

**_AND!_**Please check out the poll in the end of chapter 9 and vote with a comment or PM me! It's very important for me so please do it :DD

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><p>10th chapter<p>

_**My Place, Not Ours**_

_oOo_

Kakashi was feeling like some sort of handicapped idiot, being pushed around in a wheelchair and by a chunin on top of that. Technically speaking he was handicapped, though no one except a few people including his fellow jounin and the two remaining sannin would ever had had the nerve to tell him that. Well at least not straight to his face. He was a bit surprised when he noticed they weren't going towards his place, but to somewhere else.

"Are we going somewhere?" he asked with a bored voice which however didn't seem to have an effect on the chunin. "We're going to my place,", Iruka answered with a tone that made clear it wasn't something they could have a debate on, they were going to his place and that was it. There was also something strange in the chunin's voice as he said the words 'my place', like there would have been something special about those words. 'Maybe he just wanted to make clear it's not up to me where we're going,' Kakashi thought, not going further.

"Great," Kakashi groaned out loud, he had no idea why he was being so rude to the academy teacher who hadn't really done anything to deserve being treated badly. Well, if you didn't count his odd behavior when the jounin had first woken up, but the man seemed to have gotten over whatever it was that had bothered him so it was all good, except Kakashi still couldn't help himself.

Usually his unsociable behavior was enough to convince people to stay away from him, but somehow this Iruka didn't seem to mind him acting like a total asshole for no real reason, he just sucked it up and kept his calm. Well, the man was dealing with a full class of little hellions on a daily basis, which had to have had some kind of effect on him. Maybe this was the very reason Iruka had been made the one to watch over his rehabilitation since it was a well-known fact he could be extremely annoying and hard to deal with when he so wished.

'That's not it,' Kakashi had an annoyingly persistent voice telling there was something more to that than only the fact the chunin was used to handling difficult people. However when the scarecrow tried to figure out what the voice meant, he felt his headache come back again and he had to stop. It was like his heart and head were two separate people having a nice little fistfight inside his brain. 'For god's sake,' he thought bitterly and shut his eyes, trying to lessen the pain by concentrating on it. Not helping.

By the time Kakashi opened his eyes again, the sight of his surroundings made him confused. In a way, the neighborhood seemed very familiar to him, like he would have lived there his whole life and had had wonderful memories about the place, but then again, he had no idea where they really were or how he could possibly have been there before. He had always lived in the same block, first with his family and then later on by his own. Judging from the route they had taken, he'd never even set foot on the particular part of the town.

_oOo_

"Here we are!" Iruka announced as they arrived to his place. 'My place,' he thought sadly 'my place and not ours.'. The thought paralyzed him for a second, like it almost had done before. Oh how he wanted to be 'us' again and not 'I', but some things just couldn't be helped.

"Oi!" Kakashi's rude call interrupted his thoughts, "we going in or what?"

The dolphin shook his head to clear it, sighed silently and opened the door with his key.

"It's a pretty big place you've got all to yourself, Iruka-sensei," the jounin pointed out as Iruka turned on the lights, allowing him to see the room, "Must have cost you a lot".

Of course Kakashi wouldn't remember he was the one who had paid most of the pretty big apartment, insisting on it being the one they'd buy even though the price had been slightly higher than what their original budget had been, all because it was closer to the academy. "Yeah, it was quite expensive," the dolphin admitted before leaving the jounin in the living room while he went to prepare their dinner.

"Are you hungry?" he asked from the kitchen, already taking out the ingredients for the soup he was going to make.

"Why ask if you've already decided we'd eat?" was the nosy answer he got, but once again Iruka restrained himself from drifting to a nice little dispute. It would do no good; they were to be together for the next three months at least, which could get nasty if they fought about every single thing.

In a way, the chunin was glad he didn't have to worry about Rin that night. Sakura had dragged Naruto out on a mission to make the boy let out some of his anger, and Shizune had taken the girl over to her place. Iruka would be able to straighten out the rules with the older man without them, and he'd have some time to make Kakashi get used to the idea that he'd have to be around a small child for the next few months. Shoving a child to the jounin's face without a warning could have resulted to a catastrophe so it was better if Iruka told him first what he'd be dealing with.

"Please try to restrain from breaking anything or making a huge mess Kakashi will you?" he shouted as he realized that being left alone, the scarecrow would most probably go through his belongings and pretty much open every closet and cupboard he had.

In a way, it didn't sound so bad, since exploring the place they had shared could help the older man to remember things. It wasn't like Iruka had photos or anything lying around, since he hadn't had them up in the first place, and Tsunade had told him it might not be smart to shove evidence of them having been a couple to Kakashi's face, seeing as he seemed to get angry easily.

"Maa, I'll try," the answer was nonchalant and lazy to say the least, but the chunin didn't let it bother him. It was better than nothing or anger, and besides he had a meal to cook.

_oOo_

After Iruka left him in the living room, Kakashi's first thought was to escape. Then he remembered how his last escape plan had gone, and decided not to go for that option after all. 'I'll just entertain myself then' he thought as they chunin started to make dinner, it didn't seem like he was going to come check up on him anytime soon so he'd have more than enough time to do a little exploring trip around the house.

First of all, Kakashi eyed his surroundings. He was currently in the joint living and dining room; the brunette had gone to his right through that doorframe so that was where the kitchen was located. Then here were two doors, one on the opposite side of the room and one behind a bookshelf on his left, probably bathroom and bedroom.

Talking about bookshelves, there were three. One was on the far right corner of the room, one on his right hand side behind the dinner table and one against the wall on his left, partly hiding the bathroom door from his point of view. 'Wait, why would I think that? It could be his bedroom door or a closet' he thought to himself, but somehow he just had the feeling that it had to be the bathroom.

'Well I'll just see about that later,' Kakashi thought and noticed something fishy about the bookshelves. The tanned chunin had three, but they were all only half filled or even emptier. Question was; why did he have three if he only had enough books and scrolls to fill maybe two of them and that was if he put the books loosely? Why have empty shelves? And there was no dust on them which meant there was a passionate cleaner in the house, or that they had been recently emptied. Considering whose house he was in, both options were possible so Kakashi decided to just ask about it later and move on for now.

The dining table was in the middle of the room along with four chairs and a children's highchair. So the younger man had children, huh? At least one young one it seemed. Well Iruka certainly seemed like a family guy, he was working with kids and everyone knew the little spawns of Satan were head over heels for him. He was the one who had tamed Naruto after all, so his powers with children shouldn't be underestimated.

A kid, especially one so young he or she still needed a high chair meant the chunin was probably married too. He just didn't strike as the type to not take care of both the mother and the child, would he happen to get someone pregnant. As a teacher and the model citizen Iruka was, he was probably also not the type to overlook birth control so the possibilities of the child being an accident were pretty much ruled out. Kakashi didn't know that many civilians so he guessed he didn't know the mother.

Then of course, there was the possibility that the man had had a child with a ninja, though the thought of Iruka and a strong willed kunoichi made Kakashi snort. No, that wasn't really an option; his partner just had to be a civilian. The thought of the kind chunin with a kunoichi was just impossible; the good natured man would get his ass handed over to him on a plate if he were to date a kunoichi. Images of Anko and Tsunade flashed through Kakashi's mind and he shivered, shaking his head. No.

The scarecrow felt a tiny twinge in his heart as he thought of Iruka with his wife. Why should he care if the chunin had a family? It wasn't like it concerned him in any way, he wasn't jealous. Sharingan Kakashi didn't need a wife, he could just pick up almost anyone he wanted and he surely didn't need a kid since he generally disliked those irritating bawlers. 'I don't care' he told himself and stopped thinking about the chunin and his little family. His head had started to hurt again.

After he got bored with the living room, Kakashi moved to the room he had believed to be a bathroom only to discover he'd been right. 'What the hell, how did I know that?' he asked himself, frowning 'I'm here for the first time. But there were only two doors and one of them had to be the bathroom and the other one the bedroom, it was just a lucky guess' he decided to stop thinking about it, although he had already thought something which hinted it might not just have been dumb luck.

What if Iruka had had a study?

The jounin went through the cabinet over the sink and the first aid kit as well as every single little bottle and jar he could reach from the borders of the fairly big bathtub. He even bothered to open all those bottles and jars so he could sniff what was inside of them and naturally after the disinfectant his task became funnier, all of a sudden.

By the end of his little session, he knew that Iruka had three sets of toothbrushes and mugs, of which none looked clearly feminine and a lot of baby products including at least three different baby oils for his little angel. The younger man also seemed to like stocking, since in the cupboard under the sink he found the very same products that were already opened.

What was intriguing was the fact he had two adult's toothbrushes, but the bathroom lacked feminine hygiene products as well as other beauty stuff women tended to leave all over the place. He was living with someone but there was no sign of a woman around? Maybe it had been left from a friend who had slept over, or maybe it was Naruto's?

What Kakashi also noted was that the chunin had enough medicines and dressings to perform first aid on a little army if necessary, which he wondered about since Iruka was a chunin schoolteacher who never went on missions. Who did he keep all the medicine for? 'Maybe Naruto' he thought again absent mindedly, not accounting that most of the expiration dates on the packages indicated the products had been bought when Naruto had still been training with the sannin.

There was also something about one of the shampoo bottles, which piqued his interest as he reached out to observe them closer. Kakashi took it in his hands again and turned it around a few times. "For strong hair, keeps your hair shiny and healthy" he read and opened the bottle, taking a deep inhale of its scent. The reaction was instant, his head felt like it was going to explode and the jounin shoved the bottle away in the far corner of the room, wincing from pain. For a split second, he saw brown soapy hair and a kind smile in his mind as well as a gentle voice humming, but then it was all gone. The only things he was left with were a horrible headache and a bunch of unanswered questions.

'What on earth was that?'

_oOo_

Iruka knew the jounin was exploring the wonders of his bathroom, but it didn't bother him that much. At least he knew Kakashi hadn't escaped somewhere and hopefully a roomful of different bottles and small jars full of exciting scents and colorful liquids would keep the bored man busy enough not to start destroying the place while he was busy making their dinner.

When the chunin had just set the table with the soup boiling on the stove for the last few minutes when Kakashi stumbled out of the bathroom. He looked pretty shaken and honestly speaking just plain sick and miserable as he came to sight, obviously in pain. Iruka hurried to help the older man who was blinking and holding his head in his hands, from which he concluded that the jounin had either hit his head, or had a pretty nasty headache and in the worst case both.

"What happened?" the dolphin asked, but didn't get any kind of rational answer. Groans didn't count. Iruka waited patiently for the jounin to calm down, which he eventually did, though it took some time. "Does your head hurt?" he asked, but speaking was apparently still too much for the older man who only nodded a little, and groaned again when the said movement only worsened his condition.

"I'll give you some painkillers after, but you really can't take them to an empty stomach, I'm sorry about that though,", Iruka told him and pushed his chair to the table where he gently helped the jounin to get up and to a normal sized chair. Kakashi didn't complain, but it was probably only because opening his mouth and forming a sentence was something that would have made his head hurt.

"Itadakimasu," Iruka said before they dig in the creamy and delicious soup. The jounin didn't say anything, but he bowed to show his gratitude. The soup was really good, the chunin was definitely proud of his cooking skills at times like this; he was naturally good at cooking on top of which he really liked trying new recipes and practiced on daily basis. However the particular soup they were eating was something anyone could have made, since one only had to chop vegetables, boil them and when they were cooked, mash them. What the dolphin also liked to do was to add some crème fraîche, a pinch of salt and some herbs.

"Is it all right?" The chunin was not really worried about Kakashi not liking the soup, the man had always loved vegetable soup and losing memories shouldn't have influenced his tastes. "Maa, it's good," was the answer, although considering that the silver haired jounin had his mouth full of soup it could also have been something else but Iruka didn't really care to ask again.

They ate in silence, Iruka didn't want to bother the older man and besides, he was lost in his own thoughts. 'He's eating with his mask on,' the dolphin thought sadly, although he had already known it would be like that. He was a stranger to the scarecrow now, so why would he have taken his mask off? The very fact that Kakashi didn't know who he was, saddened the gentle chunin, so he just kept silent and ate.

As for Kakashi, he was simply trying to get his head to stop hurting by not talking which eventually worked. "So you have a kid?" he surprised the chunin who wasn't expecting any kind of start for a conversation from the older man. "Yes, a daughter. She's two and half years old," he admitted smiling and wondered about the weird way to start a conversation.

Well, if the person sitting on the other side of the table had been anyone else but Kakashi, the question wouldn't have been so weird, but considering that it was, as well as in their situation it was fairly odd. Sharingan Kakashi initiating a conversation with 'So you have a kid' as the opening line? That was something unheard of, but then again he was probably kind of bored and willing to do anything to get rid of the boredom. This time it seemed like the game was 'Finding out everything about Umino Iruka'.

"Maa maa, isn't it nice to have a family," Kakashi said, curving his eye to a smile, "so where is she? Somewhere with her mom?" The tanned chunin shook his head and thought about Rin's real parents who were dead "No, she's with Shizune for tonight. I knew you didn't like kids that much so I thought it would be better this way, though you will probably meet her tomorrow.".

The silence fell again for some minutes, after which the older man spoke again "You didn't tell me where your wife was if she's not with her," he noted and pointed at Iruka with his spoon, accidentally dropping some soup on the table. "Oops."

Iruka sighed and frowned irritated, dealing with the jounin was always like dealing with children. "I didn't say I had a wife, now did I?" he sighed as he leaned forward with a piece of kitchen paper and wiped the soup off the table. It was a good thing he always had a roll of the blessed material on the table, kids always spilled stuff and knocked over glasses in which cases fast access was the key to success in the battle against staining.

_oOo_

'He doesn't have a wife,' Kakashi couldn't believe it. "You're not married?" he asked, and couldn't quite hide the surprised tone in his voice like he would have wanted. He wasn't really concerned about the chunin having a wife or not, he was simply entertaining himself, that's all it was.

"As a matter of fact, no I'm not," the younger man said with no sign of remorse, no sadness in his eyes. That must have meant that he hadn't lost her in a tragic way or she hadn't left him. "So what happened to her?" Kakashi knew he was being nosy and his head reminded him of that with the throbbing pain he felt, but he didn't care. For some reason he just needed to know.

Iruka sighed and got up, starting to clean off the table. "I never was married okay?"

"What about Rin, she's not an illegitimate child is she? Doesn't sound like you," Kakashi commented and was about to point at the chunin with his spoon again when the brown eyes shot him a glare, daring him to drop some of the soup on the table again.

"Rin is adopted," Iruka admitted, "though she doesn't know that yet, I'll tell her when it's time so don't you say anything to her about it.". There was something that clearly stated that he was serious about it, so Kakashi nodded like a good boy and stopped with the questions, for a while at least.

'So he was never married,' he thought to himself. Somehow it made him feel something he couldn't quite figure out. It was like something heavy had been lifted off his chest, but why on earth was he feeling that way? It wasn't like he was connected with the tanned chunin other than being in his care for the time being, meaning until he was strong enough to jump out of windows again.

When Iruka had cleaned up, he came to the jounin with his coat on, carrying a felt with him. "What's going on?" Kakashi asked and tilted his head a little "going somewhere?". The other man raised a brow at him, "Well I assume you don't want to sleep here do you?" his voice sounded weird, like he was suppressing something. "Well no not really," Kakashi said and wondered why he hadn't even thought about going home, actually the dolphin had surprised him a little even though he knew it was stupid. Of course he had to go home for the night.

_oOo_

When they arrived at his place, Kakashi was happy to notice it still meant his old apartment and not some other. It would have been weird since he'd always been living there, or well, always meaning after his fathers' death. He still was the legal owner of the Hatake compound, but the place had been empty for a good twenty years. He hadn't wanted to see the place after his father had died, but he'd never been able to bring himself to sell the place either. The image of Copy-nin Hatake Kakashi didn't actually strike as the type that got emotionally attached to things, but it wasn't like anyone else knew.

'Home sweet home,' the scarecrow thought as Iruka let them in, but something still seemed to be off. Someone had obviously been in his apartment since his scrolls and books were all in the wrong order. Other than that, his furniture also seemed to have changed for some reason, which saddened him. At least his old couch was there, which made him feel a little better since it was the first thing he'd ever bought with his very own paycheck. Again, it might not have suited his image, but Kakashi really loved the old battered piece of furniture.

"What happened here?" he ended up asking as he rolled around his living room with the wheelchair. For some reason Iruka blushed he was clearly stuttering as he answered him.

"Well, uh…" the chunin seemed to be thinking how to place his words "you sold your stuff before leaving, I had to try and recreate it as well as I could," he ended up saying before he shut up again.

Kakashi frowned a little, he didn't recall ever talking to the teacher properly, which eventually raised a question.

"How did you know what my place was like?" he asked and the dolphin smiled to him, taking something from the bookshelf.

"I got these photos" Iruka showed him the pictures but the jounin wasn't entirely convinced. 'Well whatever, I'm tired and besides why does it even matter,' the scarecrow thought to himself and let the matter slip.

"Oh, one more thing before I go," the chunin teacher remembered by the time he was already outside "I'll come to wake you up around 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, we have a lot to do and talk so we'll start early," he stated with his teacher voice, not leaving any options.

Great, who on earth had thought of putting Kakashi up with an early bird like the academy teacher? 'Curse that old hag,' the jounin thought and tried to smile back to Iruka, who said goodnight and left.

'Well, let's see him try waking me up that early,' Kakashi thought as he rolled to his bedroom, where he went and closed the curtains as his first task, after which he heaved himself on the bed, finding the it surprisingly difficult. In the end, he couldn't even bother to take off his clothes as the tiredness caught up with him and he drifted to the land of dreams.

_oOo_

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><p>AN2: It's very late but I wanted to post this before going to sleep, any formatting errorsand shit (full-text bolding, italic or other screw-ups) that the site might find funny to include in this will be fixed up later when I have more time. I'll probably also edit my ramblings if I've written something weird in the author's notes, please bear with me and more importantly, please comment! 3


	11. The Dolphin Patterned Apron

A/N: I can't tell you how sorry I am for not updating earlier, and to make matters worse I don't even have any kind of excuse (once again) other than "I forgot". True, I've been busy with school as well, but I'll try to update more often from now on... AND you might just get a little extra chapter for Christmas! ;)

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><p>11th chapter<p>

_**The dolphin patterned apron**_

_oOo  
><em>

The cursed sunlight woke Kakashi up that morning. He groaned and pulled the covers over his head so he could continue sleeping. For a second he just lay in his bed trying to forget the world, until he realized there shouldn't have been a single ray of sunlight in his room. He had shut the curtains the night before, precisely to avoid this kind of wake up call.

The jounin sat up in a split second, kunai in one and several shuriken in the other hand, all senses fully alert. It was when he felt pain in his leg that he remembered he wasn't out in the woods anymore and the one that had opened the curtains was probably the same person that was currently humming in his kitchen. For a brief moment, Kakashi thought he knew the song, but the feeling vanished soon enough for him to think it had just been his imagination.

'Goddamn it,' he thought and grit his teeth together when he moved again, forgetting he shouldn't step on his injured leg. He could handle pain well, being a jounin it was kind of written in the job description since they were always injured during missions. The broken leg didn't really hurt that much, but it sure was annoying.

'Well, at least that horrible headache is gone,' he realized and smiled lightly; he really did feel different than before. His mind was clearer and his heart lighter. What had changed? That, he couldn't answer. 'Whatever, time to go see what he's doing, it's not even 8 o'clock yet so he shouldn't be here yet…'

"Good morning Kakashi!" the dolphin's almost annoyingly energetic voice greeted the jounin as he rolled to the living room, not even bothering to answer. "Your coffee is on the table, two sugars no milk and the newspaper is over there too," Iruka continued "I'll bring the croissants over when they're ready; they're still in the oven. I should have come earlier I guess.".

The chunin didn't come out from the kitchen but and Kakashi was completely fine with that. He could take his time relaxing and sipping his coffee maskless while the younger man was busy watching his croissants,; it suited him more than well. After last night, he had to admit that the brunette didn't seem like the type to try and see his face while he was busy eating but one never knew, it could have been just a well thought strategy.

'I wonder though, how did he know how I drink my coffee? And this is the right newspaper too,' he noticed as he got off the wheelchair and sat at the table. Kakashi was glad he managed to get up from the damn wheelchair himself, it would have been mortifying to ask for help with a task that simple.

It was really starting to disturb him, the fact that Iruka had managed to recreate his apartment almost perfectly, and the way he knew stuff about him no one was supposed to know. It was rather worrisome how his senses accepted Iruka's presence as if he were used to him. Had his guard become this bad during the three years? He'd be killed in no time when he got back on active duty. Hell, he could be killed while he was still in rehab because of his sucky, sedated senses if that really were the case.

'Well, he did do background search on me with my apartment, he showed me the pictures,' he argued, but there was still something, 'And Asuma knows I drink coffee with two sugars…' Still, the jounin couldn't help but to wonder. It was just too weird. 'Damn this headache,' he cursed as the dull ache started again, taking his mind off the chunin.

'Well better not to think about difficult things, what do I care if Iruka knew how I drink my coffee? It's not like it's going to kill me if he knows what I like,' he finally decided and moved on to reading the news, a lot of things had happened in three years and a shinobi couldn't afford to be ignorant about what was going on.

Kakashi was just about to finish his coffee when he heard Iruka tell him he should put on his mask and that he was coming to the room. He sighed and pulled the mask up, frowning as he realized he'd have trouble eating like that.

However he forgot his problem immediately as when he saw the younger man coming out of the kitchen, holding a tray of something steaming. It wasn't the sight itself that caused him to react like he did, but rather the weird flashes, which started immediately as he laid his eyes on the chunin and the apron he was wearing. The fact that a similar thing had happened he day before didn't make it any less confusing and once again the masked man found himself held captivate by his own mind.

Kakashi's visible blue eye widened and his brain froze, making the black cup he had been holding fall to the floor, shattering to pieces with a loud crash. It made a mess and the hot coffee he'd spilled on his healthy leg burned but the jounin couldn't have cared less.

Countless images flashed through his mind, making his head ache painfully and his mind confused with all the information and emotions flowing past him. He couldn't hold onto them even if he realized they were clearly his memories and his sentiments.

"What is this?" he asked out loud with a confused voice, frowning as he closed his eyes and rested his head between his hands so it wouldn't fall off his shoulders from the weight.

The images revolved around in his head, mocking him, constantly changing and twisting to something else. Kakashi felt like he would have been sucked inside his own memories. They were clouded so he couldn't see anything clearly, but he could feel they were important memories and feelings, which frustrated him and made his head protest violently as he tried to remember.

Then the flow stopped as suddenly as it had started, leaving Kakashi gasping for air as the emptiness of his own mind hit him. It was like a blind man had been showed all the colors in the world, only to be dragged back in the darkness seconds after. The dullness of his mind was devastating and he knew he had lost something very precious or rather; he had failed to regain it.

'Obito's eye is crying,' he realized as he felt something roll down his cheek, something warm and wet. It wasn't surprising; the dark haired boy had always been the more sensitive of the two of them but what was the reason for crying this time? 'Won't you tell me, Obito?'

_oOo_

Iruka was humming joyfully as he shuffled about in the kitchen. He was wearing the very same apron he had gotten as a birthday present on the first year he had been together with the older man, it was a rather childish present but who cared. The scarecrow had noticed that he liked cooking, but his opinion had been that the apron Iruka had already had was way too boring for the cute chunin, so he'd given him a new one.

The apron was baby blue with small dolphins and curved lines and Kakashi had explained to him that it represented little dolphins swimming in the sea. The academy teacher had been happy about the present, though his first reaction had been to burst to laughter. Ever since that day, he had always worn it, the poor piece of accessory was already worn out and the colors had started to fade from where he always wiped his hands.

'He really was silly back then,' the chunin smiled as he remembered all the Dolphin related stuff the older man had bought over the years they were together. Pillows, stuffed toys, underwear, basically whatever he could land his hands on. That was until Iruka had told him to stop of course; it had been fairly disturbing to him and besides, Kakashi didn't need other dolphins in his opinion, one was enough.

He was in a good mood, Rin was in the kindergarten and Kakashi had woken up nicely without making a fuss about it. Iruka had known about the older man's tendency to be grumpy in the mornings, especially if he didn't get to go through his rituals in his own slow pace. That was something the chunin had gotten used to during the years they had lived together, so he had decided to wake the scarecrow up by simply letting the sun get in the bedroom.

The dolphin glanced at the croissants and decided they were ready so he opened the oven and took them out, carefully placing the goods in a small basket before they had even started to cool off. 'They are better when they're warm and besides, I'm hungry,' he though as he carried the basket to the living room along with some jars of jam and his own cup of coffee.

"I'm coming over there so put your mask on; the croissants are the best when they're still warm you know."

The older man's reaction to him entering the room both surprised and scared the hell out of Iruka. He hadn't expected to be greeted with a smile or anything, but he certainly hadn't expected the older man to drop his cup of coffee and curl up in pain like that either.

He hurried to Kakashi's side and hastily placed his cup and the basket of baked goods on the table, shoving them off his mind. He tried to read the jounin's behavior but he'd never seen anything like it. 'Great, so he's having fits now too? I'm not a medic for god's sake!'

"What's wrong Kakashi, talk to me," he said, hoping that his voice wouldn't somehow irritate the silver haired jounin. The man could easily become violent without meaning it if he was having some kind of flashback from the time he'd spent in captivity.

His words garnered no reaction from the man, but slowly the pain seemed to ease and Kakashi calmed down a bit, releasing his head.

"What's wrong?" Iruka tried again, but the only response he got was a grunt filled with pain and an inarticulate mumble he couldn't decipher.

"What did you say?" The older man reached at him and tugged his apron in a demanding way.

"Take it off," he croaked, still not looking up, "It's making my head kill me." It was all the explanation he got, but the dolphin hurried to fill the request if it would help Kakashi.

"It's okay, I'm not wearing the apron anymore," he announced as soon as he had pulled the piece of clothing off and tucked it in his pocket. "What was that just now?"

Slowly, the silver haired jounin lifted his head and looked around like he was scared by a monster or something would jump from somewhere. The look didn't suit the legendary Copy-nin, and sure enough it faded away quickly, being replaced with his normal bored-to-hell-look.

Before that, Iruka managed to catch something unusual, at least considering the situation. 'Obito's eye is crying,' he noticed surprised and frowned quickly. Whenever Kakashi was being too stubborn or just too dense to notice something important, Obito reminded him of it in his own way. At least that was what Kakashi had told him once, years before.

'Did he just try to remember me?' the though flashed through the brunette's mind as he realized it must've been the case, since he'd been asked to take off the apron, which could have worked as a trigger. But why did remembering pain the older man that much?

"I'm fine now, you can stop staring thank you very much," the grumpy, clearly irritated voice snapped Iruka out of his thoughts and he realized he must have been staring at the scarecrow who didn't like it when strangers stared at him, mask or not.

'Strangers,' sadness came over the younger man as he remembered his current position in Kakashi's eyes, and he nodded shortly before getting up from the floor.

"The croissants are probably still hot, they taste better that way so eat them quickly," he instructed and turned to go to the kitchen. "I'll eat over there since it's easier for you that way, right?"

Iruka sat in the kitchen on the three-step stool like he sometimes used at their, at his place and ate silently. His good mood was gone, replaced with a sad and angst filled one. In his mind, he knew getting down from something like that was stupid, it was only the first day of rehab and recovering from amnesia or whatever it was that Kakashi had, took a lot more time than just that.

Besides, hadn't the older man just showed signs of regaining his memories? 'I can't start moping around just because he doesn't feel at ease with me staring at his face now, it's just not like me,' he thought and shook his head.

'I'll make him remember and this will all be just a bad dream then.'


	12. Extra: Your Little Sister

A/N: Hello everyone and happy New Year! I did hint that I'd be writing an extra for Christmas and I did, Rad even got it beta read in time and all but as I haven't been home in the past two weeks that much, I haven't had the time to put this up yet. Sorry and enjoy, comments are always appreciated! :D

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><p>* Extra *<p>

**_Your little sister_**

_oOo_

Naruto was exhausted and filthy with mud, blood, sweat and god only knew what else scattered all over his trademark orange-black clothes, but above all he was hungry as a wolf. He'd just returned from a three-week long B rank mission, which had left him dying to get some proper food and rest, although the mission itself hadn't really been that difficult, it had required a huge amount of chakra.

Good food in Naruto's case meant ramen of course, and it was one of the two things that prevented him from simply collapsing on his bed. While waiting for the bath to run, he wolfed down the couple of onigiris he'd bought on his way home, after which he stripped naked and dragged his butt to the bathroom, grabbing his towel on his way in.

After carefully washing all the dirt and blood off his body and examining his wounds to see there was nothing major he hadn't already noticed, he sank in the white tub up to his neck, sighing as the water warmed his body and started to make him a bit drowsy.

'I wonder how he's doing?' he thought and sank a bit lower, so that his mouth was under water. He might have not been a child anymore, but one was never old enough to stop blowing under the water until it bubbled. The blonde boy had been away for a little over three weeks. Three weeks that he hadn't seen Iruka sensei. He sank completely under the water, closing his eyes and holding his breath.

It had been less than three months since he'd come back from training with Jiraiya, only to find something horrible had happened while he had been away. Apparently Kakashi had stayed behind to hold some kind of enemy, after which he had pretty much been declared dead. Naruto wasn't even sure if he wanted to know what kind of monsters the enemy had to have been to be able to kill his former sensei.

However, what had made him more upset than Kakashi's death, was the lover of the said jounin. The sweet and loving Iruka-sensei who was always smiling and laughing, had had a mental breakdown when he'd heard the news, and he'd been badly depressed ever since. He hadn't eaten or taken care of himself, basically shutting down the whole world. The only thing he had done when Naruto had come back from his journey had been sleeping, for only in his dreams he could meet his silver haired lover again.

The situation had gotten at least a little bit better after Naruto had come home, since he was the only one who Iruka seemed to still care for. The brunette always tried to make an effort when he was present, but the blonde boy could easily see through the strained mask Iruka put on while he was visiting. He would ask the man if he'd eaten and Iruka would lie to him, after which Naruto would make them ramen and watch the brunette eat. Not even their sign language worked anymore because Iruka just simply didn't want to communicate.

'I wasn't there when I should have,' Naruto thought with a hint of bitterness and came back above the surface of the water 'If only I hadn't been away.' He'd been told millions of times that he couldn't have prevented what had happened to either of his old teachers. He knew that well enough for himself, but there was still some part of him that said he hadn't done enough for Iruka, the man who had always been there for him when he had needed help or support.

'Well,' he thought and took an old rubber duck from the board of the tub. Iruka had bought it for him when he had turned ten.

"_Remember, Naruto, that no matter what they say, you are important. You're very precious to me, you do know that don't you?" _

He had been bullied the day before his birthday, and Iruka had cheered him up in the evening, promising to spend the whole next day with him. They had gone outside and had a picnic with a homemade cake as dessert. In the evening, they had a bath together at Iruka's apartment and the blonde boy had received his gift.

"_See? It's yellow like your hair and it's smiling, like you should always do."_

Naruto smiled at the duck and his memory, rising up from the tub after he'd carefully put the duck back in its place. "I'll smile for your sake Iruka-sensei!" he said and dried himself off with the towel, putting on his orange shuriken boxers with his hair was still dripping wet.

_oOo_

"Teuchi-ojisan!" Naruto waved his hand as he ran toward the ramen stand, receiving a greeting in return when the owner heard his voice.

"Naruto-kun! Good to see you again. I take it your mission was successful?" the kind-looking man smiled at the blonde boy, who grinned widely and nodded as he sat down.

"You bet, I beat those jackasses 10-0!"

"And after a mission that long, you're probably hungry am I wrong?" Teuchi smiled and raised a brow at the teen, who scratched his head as his stomach let out a loud growl to prove him right.

"Haha, as you can hear I am, and the smell is making me even hungrier"

"Good to hear that. Are you taking the usual?" Since Naruto had been going to Ichiraku's for as long as he could remember, Teuchi could almost always guess what he wanted judging from his face and mood, or so he claimed.

"Nope, today I'll take two bowls as takeout," the teen's smile wavered a bit, and Teuchi could guess what he was thinking. Somehow it didn't seem to bother the man, as he only nodded and whistled as he proceeded to make his famous ramen for the kyuubi boy.

"So I take it you're going to see Iruka-san?"

Naruto raised his head and his smile softened into a bit sadder version from the previous grin.

"Yeah, I bet he hasn't eaten anything in some time," he said, "I tried to hurry back home but it took three weeks after all."

Teuchi didn't look worried, which Naruto thought was a bit weird. Just before his mission, the man had consoled him when he had said he was worried about Iruka's well-being while he was away. Of course the other ninjas in the village, Iruka's friends and colleagues tried to look after him the best they could, but no one had the same effect on him.

"Here you go Naruto-kun, there's some extra for my two best customers" the man winked, still looking like he knew something Naruto didn't, but he was too much in his thoughts about Iruka to have paid much more attention to Teuchi.

"Thanks oji-san!" the blonde said, paying before he hurried to Iruka's.

_oOo_

'I wonder if he's awake?' Naruto was just around the corner of Iruka's apartment, he'd almost tripped down once so he had had to reduce his walking speed to a normal one, since falling over and spilling the delicious ramen he had, simply because of carelessness and fatigue, would have been such a waste.

To his surprise, the lights were on when he saw the windows of the second floor apartment Kakashi and Iruka had bought some years aback. For the past months Iruka hadn't bothered to turn the lights on since he slept most of the time, and even when he didn't, he wished he was, so there was no point in turning the lights on. 'So why are they on now?'

Naruto hurried the stairs up forgetting his fatigue in an instant, curious of the unexpected situation. He knocked on the door three times and waited for an answer. A few minutes passed but nothing happened, and the blonde became a little nervous. What if something had happened?

"Iruka-sensei?" He knocked again and pressed his ear against the door, when a sudden scream startled him, making him backpedal a couple of steps before shaking his head clear.

"Iruka-sensei?" his tone was more demanding as he repeated and fell silent to listen for an answer, which never came. Naruto quickly rummaged his pockets for a key, which he slid in the lock soundlessly, making the door fly open only seconds after.

"Iruka-sensei, are you all right?!" the teen shouted as he ran in the living room with kunais in both hands, looking frantically around him in order to spot the offender. Instead, of a blood splattered horror scene, he found the chunin standing in the middle of the room, seemingly surprised by Naruto's sudden burst in.

"Naruto?" He sounded all right, and even looked healthy, which was the next thing attracting the boy's attention after he'd made sure no enemies were lurking in the corners of the room.

His Iruka-sensei looked healthy, unlike he had when the blonde left for his mission weeks ago. His hair was clean and his face had its usual healthy color, eyes shone bright and curious at Naruto. The room had also changed now that the boy put more effort in observing his surroundings, it was clean and the air smelt fresh, even the pot plant had been watered judging from how much more energetic it looked in comparison to what it had been.

"Why are you waving your kunai inside Naruto?" the amusement in Iruka's voice was obvious as he raised a brow at the teen who smiled sheepishly back at him, "You don't need them in here".

"But I thought you were in danger," he said as he put the kunais back in their holsters hanging from his waist, "I heard a scream and-".

To Naruto's surprise, his old teacher burst into laugh and even went as far as to clutch his abdomen before he gradually stopped and wiped away the tears from his brown eyes. The confused teen just stared at the seemingly normal man who he had expected to find depressed and self-destructive.

"You- You really though I could make such a high pitched noise?" Iruka chuckled and looked at the blonde who reddened as he realized how stupid he had been. Sure enough the sound he'd heard had been far too high and girly to originate from his older brother who was a grown up man.

"Yeah well maybe I did over react-" Naruto caught up with his thoughts in the middle of his sentence and his eyebrows shot towards his hairline, "Wait, who was it if not you?" the incredulous tone made the brunette laugh again in a heartfelt, rich voice. "Not to mention your place is clean and you look healthier than you did last time." The cerulean orbs grew wide as he connected the dots and found himself with a ridiculous, but rational answer to his own unvoiced question.

"Iruka-sensei, do you have a _woman_ here?" he asked in a scandalized tone, not wanting to say 'girlfriend' because it would have been too much. Much to his annoyance, Iruka toppled over and fell on the floor, roaring with laughter.

"Well I guess you're not entirely wrong," the brunette said, choking back laughter as he rose yet again, holding a hand over his stomach which probably hurt from laughing so much. Served him right, Naruto though with an inward pout as he watched his former teacher compose himself.

"In fact, I think I'm going to fetch her, I bet she wants to meet you," the teens jaw dropped in growing horror as Iruka walked to the bedroom, disappearing from his sight.

"Uh, Iruka-sensei, you don't really have to bother her for my sake," he stuttered, shifting uncomfortably at the thought of a strange woman in his big brother's bed. "I mean, I can just come back at a better time and-".

His sentence was interrupted as Iruka came back to the living room, making him frown as no one followed the teacher. Then Naruto figured it out, and his eyebrows rose again with the realization.

"Sensei, is she…?" he was left speechless as Iruka walked to him with a baby in his arms.

"Her name is Rin, we were just discussing whether it's already bed time or not," he said and with the old gentle smile Naruto had so much missed the past six months, "clearly though, she disagrees with me."

"But why is she here? Whose is she?" questions filled the teenagers mind as he looked at the baby girl who looked at him with curiousness in her brown and a little sleepy eyes.

"I'll explain, but I think it would be better to sit on the couch, right?" Iruka didn't wait for an answer before backing to sit on the said piece of furniture, the blonde following him surprisingly quietly before he remembered something.

"Ah!" he gasped and shot up right after he'd sat down, making Iruka frown at the sudden movement, "I forgot! I bought us ramen and forgot it outside since I couldn't possibly hold the bag at the same time with kunais," he wailed and hurried outside to check on his precious take out boxes.

When Naruto came back in, the chunin had installed himself and the baby girl on the table, two spoons and pairs of chopsticks placed on it as well as something which most likely was a bottle of milk. He smiled at the teen who plopped down on his usual seat before taking out two bowls of ramen, still warm and most definitely delicious as ever. They ate in silence, Naruto wolfing down his share less hurriedly than usual while Iruka tended to the baby first, only taking up the spoon when the girl had taken her bottle and was drinking with content little noises along the sucking.

"So?" the dolphin raised his eyes from his meal and adjusted the baby, minding her head ever so carefully, "I guess you want to know about Rin-chan right?" It wasn't really a question but rather a statement, to which Naruto nodded eagerly with his mouth still full of noodles. He sure did want to know.

"Well let's see.."

His former teacher told him how Tsunade had come to his place and obviously planned the whole thing very carefully right from the beginning, though the chunin's wound had distracted her at the time to some extent, making the plan much more complicated. The light frown on Naruto's face probably showed his disagreement with such underhanded method when concerning the lives of people, but Iruka just shook his head and smiled to the boy.

"Not that I mind, she was right to do what she did. We are her people and she did her best to help us both in her own way. I'm grateful that she did," he said glancing at the baby who had taken the bottle out of her mouth with a barely audible pop, alarming the Iruka to take the empty bottle away. She then gurgled and stuck her thumb to her mouth, sucking it instead of the bottle.

"So she's your child now?" the blonde boy had finally polished off his bowl and was now thinking about everything he'd just heard.

"Yes she is. And actually, you know what?" Naruto raised his head and looked at his father figure, his head tilting lightly on his right. Iruka's eyes were glinting and his lips were curved up with a smirk as he continued, "That sort of makes her your little sister now doesn't it?"

The teens cerulean eyes went wide with the realization and his face lit up like a hundred watt light bulb being fed with too much electricity as the words hit home. "Really?" he asked excitedly with his smile spreading from one ear to the other.

"If you want to," Iruka laughed and finished his meal with a couple of quick sips of the remaining soup, "I think she wouldn't mind. Having the future Hokage as a big brother must really be something."

Naruto was barely listening to the chunin by the time he finished his sentence. He was a big brother! And what a cute little sister he had indeed!

"Do you want to hold her?" the blonde boy nodded eagerly and went to sit closer to Iruka, who waited until he was properly seated and ready. A hint of Naruto's nervousness under the layers of bubbling excitement must have made its presence known to the older man as he handed the small bundle over to the teen.

"Don't worry, she's a really calm girl, you won't drop her," he reassured and instructed him how to hold a baby, talking with that pleasantly low voice of his, which Naruto had learned to trust from early childhood. Whenever Iruka used that tone, he was being serious and his words were worth listening to, no matter what the topic was.

The blue orbs stared at the small girl in his arms in awe as she giggled and stretched out to catch his blonde strands, way too high for her small, plump fists to reach. She was the most beautiful baby Naruto had ever seen and though he hadn't actually seen that many, he was still certain that she must have been the most beautiful baby in the world.

As he was holding the girl, Naruto could see the long brown eyelashes, which fluttered as she reached out to him once more; making him offer his pinky to her while he continued observing the tiny features. She was amazingly similar to Iruka with her pair of chocolate colored eyes and hair, on top of which her skin was lightly darker than Naruto's own, though not as tanned as their father's was.

"Are you sure she's not biologically yours?" the teen asked jokingly, flashing a somewhat dirty grin at the older man whose face reddened momentarily before he muttered 'a hundred percent sure' barely audibly, making Naruto chuckle. Of course he knew there was no way it could be the case, he was well aware his foster father was as gay as one could be and that there was no way he would have done it with a woman.

And besides, Kakashi had just left on his mission when Rin had been conceived. If he was trusting his math abilities that was.

His chuckle seemed to rub off the little girl who also started giggling with her high pitched baby voice.

"You're a cheerful one aren't you?" he asked with a huge grin on his face and laughed some more "I'm your Naruto-niisan, the future Hokage dattebayo!" he exclaimed and pointed at himself along with a rather Gai-like wink and a flash of his white teeth, though they weren't quite as blinding as the previously mentioned jounin's.

For a while, they kept laughing together, neither able to stop because the other one was still at it. Iruka didn't join their bizarre laughing contest, but he leaned back on his chair with a big relieved smile on his face and kept watching his two children with love shining in his eyes.

Slowly the laughter stopped as Rin got tired and started wriggling, making the blonde glance at Iruka with a questioning look laced with a hint of worry.

"She's just tired," the chunin said reassuringly and reached out for the girl who was soon propped against his chest while the older brunette patted her back until she let out a small burp. Naruto for his part just stared at the duo with a sheepish smile plastered on his face until a sensation of falling forward made him jerk his head up in a quick motion, which hurt his neck.

"Naruto, I think it's time you both went to bed," Iruka's voice hid well his amusement, though the teen could read it from the way his eyes glinted and the left corner of his mouth was slightly curved up.

"Sorry," the blonde scratched his head and glanced at the older man who just shook his head.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, silly. I'm sorry to have kept you up this late," a hasty look at the clock revealed it was already nine twenty and though it was still relatively early, Naruto hadn't really slept well in a long time and he was dead tired.

"How about you go brush your teeth and sleep over? The couch is softer than it looks, or if you haven't grown too old to be sleeping with me you're welcome to do so."

Naruto was left weighting his options as Iruka sauntered in the bedroom with the baby in his arms. The blonde was really tired, and now that Iruka had mentioned it, he wasn't really keen on going back to his empty apartment. After a long mission it would be nice to just feel the presence of someone, and Iruka had always been his choice number one for comfort. Now with Rin around it they would be even more like a real family, and that was something Naruto had always wanted.

As for the last part of Iruka's sentence, his big brother and father figure could not have been more wrong in assuming Naruto could possibly grow too old to sleep in the same bed with the chunin. He'd do it as long as he was allowed to and that would never change. He'd always be the same boy who wanted to share his world with Iruka, he'd always be around to brighten the chunin's world and to cheer him up and drag him to Ichiraku's.

"So what are you going to do?" Iruka had come back while the blonde was still absorbed in his own thoughts, as rare as it might have sounded. A broad grin spread on the whiskered cheeks and the cerulean orbs lit up as Naruto raised his stare from the ground to look at the person most important to him in the world.

"I'm staying!"


	13. Six Months of Rehab

12th chapter

**_Six months of rehab_**

_oOo_

"Six months," Kakashi's voice clearly stated his disagreement; he was obviously not satisfied with what the younger man had just told him.

After his little episode with the breakfast had gone and both shinobi had eaten, Iruka had decided it was time to talk business. That of course meant that they had gone over Tsunade's rehab plan which consisted of the time he was supposedly allowed to train per day, as well as a meal plan to make sure he'd get all the nutrients he needed and stuff like that.

"Just to make a point, I'm not a freaking genin, I know what I'm supposed to eat when I'm training hard," he voiced out, pouting as the chunin on the other side of the table didn't so much as to blink an eye at his complaints. Really, why couldn't they assign him someone funny, as far as he knew the academy teacher was one of the most uninteresting people in the whole village?

Umino Iruka, Naruto's replacement for a brother and a father, a chunin academy teacher, and a model citizen, who pretty surely had been born with a stick up his ass. Iruka was never late, impolite or rude, never did anything improper. He was such a prude, always so damn modest and strict with rules and shit Kakashi didn't really consider important.

'So why does he make me feel so restless?'

"I know you're not a genin, and so does Tsunade-sama, but with all due respect, even when you know boundaries, and limits exist you never respect them, especially if they're your own. That is precisely why I'm here, to make sure you don't exhaust yourself too much." Sure enough, it was a lecture Kakashi got for saying something as innocent as what he had said.

"I know I know, you're basically here to be a pain in my ass. For the last time, I don't need you," the silver haired jounin said, sticking his finger in his ear, though he didn't really scratch, it was just funny to watch the brunette's face as he did so.

'No wait there was something just now,' he thought as he caught a glimpse of something that was quickly masked under anger and frustration. For a second, Iruka had looked really hurt, but the scarecrow couldn't tell if it had been only his imagination or not.

'Why would he be hurt?'

"Well too bad it isn't up to you to decide whether I stick around you or not," the chunin seemed normal; there wasn't the slightest hint of the sadness Kakashi though he'd just seen.

'Must have been my imagination,' he shook his head and frowned, shifting chairs. 'Damn, I really need to toughen up fast, this is so stupid,' the jounin had noticed his arms had trembled weakly as he had relied only on them to test his muscles.

"I'll get changed, we're going after that right?" he said and rolled to his bedroom, where he took quite some time with his pants.

'I never realized breaking a leg could be this bothersome,' he cursed in his mind as he fumbled with the loose pants he'd chosen. The cast made it impossible to put them on like he was used to, and not being able to bend his ankle sure didn't help.

It made him see the medics in a whole new light, maybe the next time he'd go to the hospital he'd actually thank them instead of vanishing without a word.

'But still, six freaking months,' Kakashi laughed inwardly as he thought of the poor academy teacher trying to restrain him for that long. 'I'll be back on my feet in less than half of that. Literally on my feet,' he shook his injured leg a bit, finally managing to wiggle the damn pants on.

"Let's go," he announced as he rolled back to the living room, where Iruka was waiting with a pleasant surprise, to say the least.

"What?" the chunin was obviously amused by the face he was making, and it made the older man frown and close his hanging mouth.

"I thought you didn't want to arm me," he noted, arching a brow at the brunette who was holding a pair of crutches.

"Well, it's good exercise for you Kakashi, but just so you know I'm not carrying you back even if you do get tired at practice," Iruka said with a grin and gave the crutches to the silver haired man who got up as soon as his hands reached the blessed pieces of wood.

"Now let's go and be careful with those. I will not hesitate to take them back, and if that happens while you don't have the chair…"

_oOo_

"Catch!"

Iruka threw a weight to the jounin, who looked surprised and actually yelped as he caught the object. Obviously Kakashi wasn't used to something being so heavy he couldn't hold it, especially something as small as a ten kilogram dumbbell.

They had walked all the way from Kakashi's place to the training ground near the memorial stone, since it was where the older man liked to train. Besides the fact he generally liked the place, its location was perfect for them, not so far it would have exhausted the jounin, but not so close he couldn't have needed to make an effort to get there either.

"What the…?" The older man was evidently surprised as he raised the dumbbell so he could see how much it was, and it didn't please him, Iruka could tell from the way his visible eye narrowed and wrinkles appeared on his forehead.

"I'll give you another if you want to," the brunette offered and held out a red dumbbell, similar to the one Kakashi was holding, except the one he had was blue.

"Give me!" the jounin barked and held out his hand. Iruka kindly ignored the fact that the hand dropped quite a bit under the weight as he handed the red item over.

"I'll be doing some training of my own over there, call if you need me and remember, I'm watching you so don't try anything stupid," the younger man said and left to go a little farther away. He knew Kakashi didn't like being watched when he was weak and this time it would have been even worse since they weren't that close anymore.

'Well, it's been a while since I've been able to train seriously so I might as well enjoy myself for a while,' Iruka decided and started his own series of exercises.

_oOo_

By the time the sun started to set, Kakashi was dead tired. Every damn muscle from the waist up ached and he was filthy with sweat and dust that had arisen from the ground, but he felt satisfied like he did every time he had been working out.

"Good work today," Iruka said and offered a towel and a bottle of water to him, a gentle smile on his scarred face.

"Thanks, you too," the chunin had popped up every now and then, checking on Kakashi's condition, making him take breaks and drink something while he rested. Even though the jounin had insisted he didn't need any, he was now glad the dolphin had actually forced him to drink, ignoring his complaints and glares.

"Can you walk home?" the brunette asked and tilted his head slightly on his right, observing the older man's condition.

"Of course I can," Kakashi said and got up, trying to seem like in reality he wasn't wishing he could let himself fall back down and just sleep there on the training grounds so he wouldn't have to walk back.

He could have just transported himself back home, had his chakra paths not been so shot. Even though he was tempted to test just how much access he still held over his chakra, the chunin had stated earlier that it was something very strictly forbidden by Tsunade. Based on what Kakashi had heard from Naruto, the academy teacher could be a demon when his orders were disobeyed, so he'd decided to study the brunette before starting to test his boundaries.

"Um, Kakashi?"

The silver haired jounin had noticed earlier that Iruka didn't use a honorific when addressing him. It was kind of weird since the man was usually the type to be very strict about those kinds of things. He was usually strict himself about keeping his distance to the others, which included assuming people he didn't really know used honorifics when talking to him, but somehow it didn't irritate or bother Kakashi when the younger man used only his name, which was almost just as surprising.

"Hm, what is it?" he asked, glancing at the brunette who was scratching the scar on the bridge of his nose like he always did when he had something to ask but he couldn't find the words or when he was embarrassed of something.

' Now How do I know that? It's the first time I see him doing it,' Kakashi thought and frowned as he tried to figure out the reason for his thought. He must have seen Iruka doing it in the mission assignment desk or something, the chunin was manning it regularly and Naruto had always made sure they took his line when they went to get a mission.

"Is that a no?" the brunette asked sounding a bit disappointed. The Jounin realized he'd probably frowned right after he had been asked the question, discouraging the chunin.

"No. I mean, I was lost in my thoughts. Come again?"

Iruka blinked and looked away, "Uh, nothing. It wasn't really that important," he muttered and refused to look at the older man again.

Kakashi might have otherwise pressed the matter further, but their arrival to his apartment interrupted his train of thoughts, making him forget about the matter. If the chunin didn't want to say, it probably wasn't anything that important, why should he care.

"I call the first shower" the silver haired man announced as he let his bag drop on the ground. If not for the fact that he might not have been able to get up if he sat down, he wouldn't have cared who went in first even though it was his apartment.

'You're making an awful lot of excuses for yourself lately, what's up with that?' he asked himself as he stepped into the bathroom, snatching his towel down from over the door so he could close it properly.

_oOo_

Iruka was sore all over, it wasn't so bad but the thought of the next day made him grunt and close his eyes while he washed their water bottles. Why had he pushed himself so hard? Sure it had been fun but he'd pay for it the next day and the thought alone was enough to make him curse himself for having been so thoughtless.

'And I'm supposed to watch that Kakashi doesn't kill himself with training, I'm such a bad example…' he sighed and perked up again as he heard something coming from the bathroom's general direction. A small wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows as he concentrated on listening and left his chore to check out what the jounin was doing.

"May I ask what the hell is going on?" Iruka asked amused as he raised a brow at the older man. He had knocked before entering to the bathroom, but seemingly the jounin wasn't in any position to ready himself for the brunette entering the room.

Kakashi was sprawled on the floor, tangled in his clothes, or rather his pants since he had no vest or shirt on though he did have his mask as usual.

"Shut up and help me," was the answer, and since the silver haired man was obviously embarrassed as it was, Iruka tried his hardest not to laugh at the sight before him.

He offered his hand and helped the older man up from the floor, blushing lightly as his eyes wandered on the jounin's bare torso. Kakashi's six pack was gone and his ribs were sticking out making him look even thinner than he was, but it still managed to get a reaction out of the brunette, who had to look down to avoid an embarrassing situation.

"Sit, I'll take care of those," he said as he realized what the jounin had been doing when he'd fallen over. "What kind of an idiot wraps the bandages around his legs when he has a cast on?" he asked amusedly and started undoing the dirty bandages, "and how on the earth did you even manage to do it?"

"Well I've never had a cast on before so you can't expect me to know how annoying they are," he was in his childish mood again, which made the chunin sigh inwardly, but he finished unwrapping the bandages and looked up to the older man's face while he proceeded to removing the dirty piece of clothing.

"Okay whatever. Just don't do this tomorrow, I'm not going to take off your pants every day so-" Iruka froze and swallowed the rest of his sentence as he saw the look on the older man's face, the silence making his gulp sound a lot more dramatic than it should have.

For a second, the silver haired jounin was only staring at him with a mysterious expression which the brunette couldn't name. His eyes were hazy and his eyebrows were knitted together as his slender fingers took off Iruka's hitai-ate, after which was the turn of the hair-tie.

Iruka didn't even blink when the brown locks flowed down after being released, he could only stare at the scarecrow, wondering what on earth was happening. He opened his mouth, trying to say something but he couldn't make a sound.

Finally, after some painfully long minutes the moment broke as the older man leaned back and knocked a bottle of something over.

The expression on the jounin's face changed, his misty gaze sharpening and his eyes narrowing as he observed the situation. He blinked twice and seemed to come back to reality from wherever he had momentarily been, a smirk spreading on his face as he saw the chunin, whose hands were still frozen on the waistband of his pants.

"What are you doing?" he said with a playful tone and his eyebrow arched as he flirted jokingly with the younger man, who rewarded him with a cute stutter.

"I-I was helping you take your pants off when you just suddenly-" Iruka explained, feeling the blood rush to his face.

"I don't think I'd have any problems with them now that the bandages have been taken cared of" the scarecrow pointed out, clearly enjoying himself as the younger man blushed and stuttered in front of him.

"I'll leave you to it then!" Iruka muttered and fled the room as soon as he could, not looking back.

"I'm going to pick Rin up, don't drown in there while I'm not looking after you!" he shouted before exiting the apartment.

_oOo_

'Shit, what the hell was that just now?' Iruka thought as he practically ran out. He was glad the jounin couldn't possibly get up that fast on his own without the crutches, he was already mortified enough of what had happened. 'It wasn't my fault, I was just helping him! It was all his damn fault, stupid pervert!'

The kindergarten teacher looked pretty surprised as she saw the running brunette, exhausted and still wearing his dirty training clothes. Iruka hadn't paid attention to how he was dressed until he stopped and noticed that the young teacher was looking at him kind of funny. 'Oh great, I must look like shit,' he thought and blushed a bit from the embarrassment, scratching his nose as he greeted the blonde woman.

"Hello Iruka-sensei" she said and bowed "I'll go get Rin-chan".

Soon enough, she came back with the energetic little girl who immediately noticed there was something different about the chunin.

"Daddy your hair!" she chirped and ran to Iruka, throwing her hands in the air in demand to be picked up. The dolphin could but smile and obey his princess' command, though he tried not to let the girl rub the dirt on her clothes as well.

"Hi little princess, did you have fun today?" he asked, touching her nose quickly with his own. The smaller brunette giggled and nodded enthusiastically as an answer, and they left after having said goodbye to the kindergarten teacher.

_oOo_

Iruka eyed at his list of things to buy and made his daughter turn right so they'd end up at the vegetable stall. He had taken Rin home so he could change his clothes and shower, after which they had come to the grocery store to get some ingredients for the supper, which was spaghetti. He was pretty sure he had stocked spaghetti in the jounin's kitchen cabinet when he had prepared the apartment, but sauce tasted the best when made from fresh ingredients.

"Iruka-sensei!" the chunin recognized Naruto's voice without even having to turn around. The blonde boy was waiving his hand in the air, running towards them.

"You shouldn't run in here Naruto," he scolded only half seriously as the boy almost knocked over a huge pile of canned tuna, "we're not outside, the store is full of other people and things you could run into".

The blond just grinned and scratched his head, not really listening, "My bad," he said and laughed, picking up the little girl who ran to him. "Rin-chan!" he threw her in the air and caught her safely in his arms before rubbing their noses together.

"Naruto-niichan!" The tiny brunette laughed and kissed one whiskered cheek, making a big wet sound.

"Eww Rin, now I have drool all over my face," he complained laughing and wiped his cheek off with his orange sleeve, but not really minding. "So how are you Iruka-sensei? I heard about your mission today, are you okay with it?"

The dolphin couldn't help but to smile proudly, his former student, son and little brother sure had grown up. Naruto wasn't the same dense boy anymore, for which he was both happy and kind of sad, since it meant he wouldn't be needed as much anymore. 'They grow up so fast,' he thought with a smile.

"I'm okay, Kakashi's a pain in the ass but everything's going rather well," he answered, laughing as the blond grinned at his unintentional choice of words. "He's had a couple of fits and his headache seems to bother him a lot, but otherwise he's doing quite well considering the situation".

"Has he remembered anything yet?" Naruto wasn't looking at his old teacher as he spoke, he was busy playing with Rin, but the chunin could tell he was really concerned about the two of them.

"No he hasn't, at least I don't think so," Iruka admitted "But it's only the first day Naruto, remember that."

The Kyuubi boy glanced at the chunin, obviously trying to read his behavior and expressions to see if he was telling the truth. "Okay, but just tell me if he does anything and I'll make him pay for it," he said firmly and handed the little girl over to her father.

"I know that Naruto, thank you," Iruka said smiling and took Rin from the blond boy. "We really have to go now, I left Kakashi alone in his apartment and it'd be bad for my mission if he drowned in his bathwater," he laughed jokingly.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to lose him that way now would we?" Naruto admitted also laughing and petted Rin's hair "Rin-chan, you're welcome to play at my place anytime, okay?"

The dolphin was glad the two of them got along so well, he had been a little concerned about it at first, but fortunately they had become just like real siblings.

"You might have to fight over her with Shizune, she's taken a liking to Rin as well," they both laughed and parted ways soon after having said goodbye.

* * *

><p>AN: Hi~! I know, it's been a _very _long time since I last updated, more than 6 months I think. I'm sorry about that, but life's been getting on the way and I'm having a bad writer's block, my muse for writing has always been loneliness which I haven't felt in a while now. I'll keep updating every now and then, thank you for your support, and please review and tell me you opinions, they mean the world to me! ;)


	14. Meeting the daughter

13th chapter

_**Meeting the daughter**_

_oOo_

Kakashi had just gotten out of the bathroom. He was standing in the middle of the living room, drying his hair with a white towel, another wrapped around his waist. The crutches were lying on a chair right beside him so he could grab them when he wanted to move, though for the time being he was just fine standing right there.

'Iruka sure is taking his sweet time, not like I'd mind if he didn't come back at all,' he thought and shook his head like his ninken so often did, 'though I guess the day wasn't half bad, I mean he isn't as big of a pain as I had imagined'.

Somehow irritated by the fact that he was getting used to the academy teacher and even admitting he wasn't so bad after all. Kakashi shook his head again, noting dryly that maybe there was some truth to the saying that summoners often became or were already quite similar to their summons

The day had indeed gone quite well, the scarecrow was satisfied enough with the amount of training he'd been allowed to do, but he knew it would not be sufficient as the time would pass. Soon he'd become stronger and his stamina would grow back to what it had been three years ago. As he progressed he would surely start cheating bit by bit, which would eventually be noticed by the hawk-eyed chunin. Oh well, he'd worry about that when it happened, if it happened. For all he knew, the other man could get enough of him before it got to that point and beg of their leader to let him go back to herding those little demons full-time.

Still, he almost felt like hitting the table out of frustration for it was such a bother to have to start everything all over again, not to think about what could possibly happen if his old enemies somehow learned about the sorry state he was in.

'At least I'm alive, but for my own and the sake of the ones I care about… Well that's if I had any.' Somehow the thought of it was a bit depressing to the silver haired man, which was weird, really, considering he'd been alone almost his whole life and he didn't really need anyone. Still, he couldn't shake the sudden feeling of loneliness that clung to him and made him bite his lip in frustration.

Kakashi's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a key turn in the lock and he turned to see the dolphin, who was carrying bags of food in his both hands. There were no children in sight, but then again the chunin had never actually said he'd bring the girl over, and it's not as if that the older man would have been sad that he hadn't. It wasn't even that he didn't like children, he just didn't understand them. In his opinion children were weird, drooling little creatures who instead of making sense made messes, literally. Even his ninken were easier to understand, though the fact they could speak sure helped.

'I probably don't get the little poop-machines since I never really got to be one,' he though sarcastically before his eyes met the brunettes.

"Yo," he greeted lazily and stopped ruffling his hair, letting the towel drop on his shoulders. For a second, Iruka just stared at him before he opened his mouth and answered.

"Hi, sorry I took so long, I had to buy tonight's sauce ingredients and some for tomorrow as well" the teacher excused and smiled sheepishly, blushing a bit.

"Nah, I didn't really miss you," Kakashi replied truthfully. He managed to catch a flash of the younger man's true feelings behind the happy mask before the now evident forced smile hid it again.

The jounin couldn't help but to wonder why his words had had that kind of reaction, though it surprised him that now with a second glance, there was absolutely no sign of his true feelings. Ninja were expected not to have feelings or at least to cover them up, but he'd figured someone as sentimental as Iruka wouldn't be able to do it that skillfully if at all. Actually scratch that, he had thought it was a blatant fact the man was bad at hiding his feelings since he was always so open, showing off his temperament at the missions office and in his classroom. It looked like he didn't have the man pegged down as well as he'd thought after all.

What was even weirder was that it wasn't really the part about the younger man being able to hide his feelings that bothered Kakashi the most; it was something else he couldn't for the life of him put his finger on. Like he would have really cared what the dolphin felt like. 'Snap out of it,' he told himself a bit effortlessly.

To get rid of his disturbingly concerned thoughts and weird mood that was hanging over them, he closed his eyes and sighed inwardly, hating himself for what he'd done and what he was about to do. When he opened his eyes again, he put on a fake smile and tried to look like he was actually interested of the answer of his question.

"So where's the little girl you told me about, weren't you supposed to go pick her up?" he could hear the fake tone in his voice. Maybe it should have been better not to try sounding cheerful after all; his usual non-concerned tone should have been good enough. At least it wouldn't have sounded so obviously faked, but then again parents really seemed to be oblivious to everything else when talking about their kids, as he soon noticed.

A genuine smile spread on the chunin's face and his eyes seemed to light up as he turned his head to see behind his back before he spoke.

"She's right behind me. Come on Rin-chan, don't be shy. Say hello to Kakashi" the latter half was obviously spoken to the girl who was indeed standing behind him.

Iruka took his sandals off and went to the kitchen, allowing the scarecrow see the smaller brunette who hurried to follow her daddy like a little duckling after her mother duck. The jounin just raised a brow at the couple who disappeared into the kitchen without further explanations or introductions. Obviously the girl wasn't all that keen on getting to know him.

'Whatever, 's not like I was either,' he thought and grabbed the crutches.

"I'm going to change," no answer except for some kind of a mutter, which sounded like 'yeah', so he went to get some clothes, catching a cold would make his schedule drag even more than what it already did.

_oOo_

While changing, Kakashi could hear his chunin caretaker humming in his kitchen, accompanied by a higher voice, which obviously belonged to the little girl. 'What was her name again?' he took a clean black turtleneck shirt from his closet and quickly pulled it over his head 'Oh yes, Rin' he stopped for a second; thinking about his lost friend and first team mate who had had the same name.

'They even look a little alike, brown hair and eyes,' he snorted with a smile, what a coincidence. Maybe he would get along with this little creature. Not that he really had to; at least not for long since soon he wouldn't need Iruka around anymore.

As soon as Kakashi was properly dressed, he headed for the kitchen from which a delicious smell came all the way to the living room. He intended to say something to draw attention to himself so it wouldn't have seemed like he was sneaking around, but instead he got stuck analyzing the sight, or so he explained to himself at least.

The dolphin was standing in front of the stove, stirring something that smelled mouthwatering and humming a calm song, which the tiny girl besides him also seemed to know. She was standing on a chair so she'd be able to see over the counter, holding a small bowl of something that looked like some sort of white sauce or mayonnaise.

The sight made Kakashi's heart skip a beat, leaving him wondering why he didn't want to disturb the peaceful moment. However his presence was noticed when Rin turned around to ask something, but instead spotted the jounin standing in the doorframe. She let out a small exclamation and stepped closer to his father with her little fingers digging into his shirt as she gripped it, demanding attention. It was clear that she was trying to hide from the scarecrow, which however wasn't so surprising since Kakashi probably looked pretty much like a robber or something.

'Maybe I should have left out the eye patch…' he thought, but Iruka interrupted his thoughts with his heart warming laughter.

"Ah, I'm sorry she's not usually this shy," he said and smiled to the older man with that genuine smile which was way better than his usual somewhat fake one he wore while he was around Kakashi.

"Come on Rin-chan," he crouched a little and picked the girl in his arms, lifting her up from the chair. "Be a good girl and say hello to Kakashi"

The silver haired man tried to look easily approachable, but the little brunette still didn't look straight at him. "Uh, hello there," his opening was lame but it couldn't help, he didn't like dealing with kids all that much, they were awkward to be around since Kakashi always seemed to screw something up, which always led to the kid crying and the parents rushing over to glare at him or something of the sort.

His clumsy salutation seemed to work on the girl, who slowly peeked at him, her face still half buried in Iruka's shirt. The scarecrow had to admit she was pretty cute, and like he had thought earlier she did quite resemble the Rin he had known a decade earlier.

"Why don't you go to the living room to get to know each other?" Iruka held the child out to the older man, who automatically reached out to take her, although he could have hit his head against the wall right after realizing he was now stuck with a 3-year-old who didn't talk to him and was probably afraid of him as well.

"Uh, you know I don't really-" he started, but the dolphin dismissed his refusal by turning back to the food.

"Don't worry you'll do just fine, she's very easy to entertain. Now if you two want edible food that hasn't been burnt tonight I suggest you go to the living room or I can't guarantee the taste of this."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the chunin's words, glancing at the brunette he was holding and caught her staring at his face, which made her blush and frown in a pouting way which made him even more reluctant to try to entertain her.

'Damn' he cursed in his mind as the discussion seemed to be over. Maybe he would really manage make Rin cry; at least that would ensure he wouldn't have to babysit again.

_oOo_

Once they were in the living room, Kakashi let Rin down on the couch and tried to make contact with the girl again.

"Uh, so, what's your name?" he asked, not being able to come up with anything better than that. Well, whatever if it worked and if it didn't, a kid that young probably wouldn't laugh at him for being horrible at small-talk?

Rin had a shy smile on her round face as she looked up to the man who was taller than she was, though he was sitting. "My name is Rin," she said with a clear voice, her smile widening at the end as she curtseyed and spread her arms like she would have been holding hems of a dress. The gesture surprised the jounin who hadn't seen anyone do something like that in years.

Kakashi blinked and the corner of his mouth curved into a smile as he realized that maybe there was a way to cope with the kid. Rin was clearly a little lady, and as such she'd have to be treated like one. The jounin sure did know how to behave with ladies, even though his usual behavior might have suggested something else.

"Rin? That's a very beautiful name," he said and smiled, though it was something that the girl probably couldn't see thanks to the shirt covering the lower part of his face.

"Thank you Mr. Prince," she replied, surprising Kakashi again.

'So now I'm a prince? I wonder why, there's no way it's my face is there?' he almost laughed out loud for the mental image of himself in a puffy costume and a crown on the top of his head. No, no way.

"So um, do you want to play something?" Even though flattery was the way to go with grown up ladies, Rin was still a kid and kids liked to play, right? Besides, it wasn't like Kakashi could have treated her like grown up girls, which besides being illegal would just have been creepy. Not to mention the bloodthirsty chunin he would have on his ass if he ever even thought that way of the little girl.

Even though his tone was a bit hesitant, the kid didn't seem to notice it as she nodded and went to get something from Iruka's backpack. It didn't take her long to find what she had been looking for, after which she came back with her arms full of some kind of dolls.

'Oh crap, we're playing hous-' the thought died as Rin sat down in front of him, and Kakashi saw the amazingly detailed dolls the brunette was carrying.

He watched her lay down five dolls, a blond woman, two Konoha ninjas, an ANBU and two missing nin, from cloud and one from leaf. Rin smiled and offered the ANBU doll to the scarecrow, who took it speechlessly and started to inspect it more closely.

"Maa, do you mind telling me where you got these?" he asked with his eyes still scanning the doll.

It had a perfect uniform consisting of a basic black sleeveless shirt and pants which every ninja wore, on top of which it had a grey armor, metal arm guards, a breast plate and black gloves, three pouches on its waist and a tiny sword tied on its back. The ensemble was complete with a tiny porcelain mask in the shape of a canine face, a fox or maybe a dog. On a closer inspection, the dolls mask carried an almost eerie resemblance to his own ANBU mask.

'Whoever did these has done a very thorough work; it must have taken time and skills to make these'

"I got them from daddy," Rin said and smiled widely with her shining white teeth showing, picking up the female doll, which now that Kakashi could see closer, was clearly the fifth Hokage, although the size of her breasts had been reduced quite a bit. "Do you like them?"

"Yeah, they're really realistic." Somehow what she said didn't surprise the jounin; he had been expecting something like that. "So how do you play?" he asked, suddenly more interested in playing with the dolls, or more accurately seeing how Rin played with them.

"These guys are the baddies." The brunette put the Hokage doll on her lap and took the two missing nin instead, holding them out so Kakashi could see them better. Like he wouldn't already have figured they were the bad ones, but he kept his mouth shut and let the girl talk.

"They're the worst of all baddies, see that?" she had dropped the other doll, and was now pointing at the slash across the tiny hitai ate of the leaf ninja on her other hand "that's a sign he's betrayed the Hokage!" her brows knitted together as she stared at the doll seriously in disapproval.

After the scarecrow had slowly nodded as a sign he understood, Rin picked up a Konoha ninja, a kunoichi, and shoved it up to his face.

"This one is a Konoha kunoichi, just like Sakura-neechan" she handed the missing nin to Kakashi, clearly telling him to hold it.

"Kanashibari no jutsu!" Since the kunoichi-doll didn't have fingers in her hands, Rin made the signs herself and then looked up at the jounin, who had a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Now he can't move," she told him calmly, moving the little kunoichi doll closer to the missing nin so she could kick him behind his knees, after which she jumped up and dropped him on the ground with a kick on the spot between his neck and right shoulder.

"This is how you play?"

Kakashi was speechless, playing with the girl seemed suddenly like much more fun than what he had thought and obviously learning was a big part of the game, although the girl probably didn't know she was learning the real deal.

'Umino Iruka, you're one cunning son of a bitch,' he thought as the girl picked up the other leaf ninja, giving it to Kakashi instead of the ANBU, which she placed besides the Hokage.

"This one is the strongest of them all; oh well besides the Hokage of course. He's super strong and has thousands of techniques"

"What's his name?" Kakashi wanted to hear what kind of name the ANBU had, the mask had looked like his, but surely it couldn't have been-

"His name is Hound, daddy always calls him that. He says Hound is a legendary solider, the best of the best!" she exclaimed, proceeding to play on her own, shouting techniques and ignoring the jounin who was frozen to stare the small ANBU-doll suspiciously with his visible eye slightly narrowed.

'It must be a coincidence, it's not like he would know my ANBU name. The doll has a dog-mask so naturally the name should match it,' his thoughts were interrupted when Rin threw one of the missing nin's on the ground, shoving the leaf shinobi into Kakashi's hands.

"Capture the traitors!" the tiny Hokage shouted and pointed at the two missing nins. The brunette turned to look at the scarecrow as he didn't reply immediately "let's go" the little kunoichi in her hands said and so Kakashi joined the epic battle.

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><p>AN: I'm so sorry it's been such a long time (again =_=), and though I can't promise to update quicker the next time I'll try. Please review!


	15. Could have, should have been

****_14th chapter_

_**Could have, Should have been**_

_oOo_

Iruka was a bit concerned, the cooking had taken a lot longer than what he had though it would, which meant Kakashi had been stuck in the living room with Rin for a lot longer than expected. The chunin had no way of knowing whether it was a bad or a good sign that there were no noises coming from the living room and he couldn't help but to worry just a little bit.

"I'm sorry I took so long," he said as he walked in the living room, arms full of bowls, glasses, and chopsticks. "You must be hungry, I'm-" his sentence was never finished as he stopped to stare the surprising sight.

Kakashi was sleeping on the floor in an uncomfortable and ridiculous-looking half sitting position with his legs crossed and back against the floor. As for Rin, she was drooling against his chest, curled up in a fetal position on top of the sleeping jounin with his arms wrapped protectively around her so she wouldn't fall down. Iruka's handcrafted dolls were scattered around them, the Konoha shinobi were about a meter or two away from the couch, the missing nins were really missing and Kakashi was lying on top of the Hokage. That left only Hound, which Iruka could see after a short moment of observing, peeping from inside Rin's tightly clenched fist.

The sight made the chunin smile softly; he put away the tableware he was carrying and sat beside the sleeping couple. It was just as he'd always imagined the older man's return would be. They looked like a father and his daughter taking a nap, which they in a sense would have been if only Kakashi hadn't lost his memories.

Iruka didn't have a camera at hand, and he sure as hell didn't have a sharingan he could have used to capture the moment, but he was pretty sure he wasn't going to forget the sight any time soon. He reached to brush off a stray strand of silvery hair which had fallen out of its usual place, retreating then just to stare at the peacefully sleeping couple for as long as it would last.

The whole picture was so endearing Iruka felt like his heart was melting as he watched the sleeping pair, his two most precious people in the world. Knowing he couldn't come home every day to the same sight, that it would probably be the one and only time he'd ever be able to witness what he was seeing made his chest clench with sorrow and his eyes water even though his lips still held a small, shivery smile on his face.

In the past, before meeting Kakashi, he'd always imagined having a wife and two, maybe three children in a small house somewhere within Konoha's boundaries. He'd thought of going home to his beloved and playing with his kids before putting them to bed with a bedtime story and lots of goodnight kisses. Of course the picture of a cute wife had changed when he'd met the man of his life, but he'd still dreamed of having children. Naruto was one thing and Iruka truly did love the boy as his own, but he had still wanted a child of his own even though he had well known it to be impossible for him and Kakashi to biologically have one.

Iruka had talked about it with the older man, and even though the scarecrow had insisted he wasn't so good with children, he had truly considered adoption with Iruka. Like any other hidden village, Konoha always had a certain amount of orphans, even during times of peace, and gay couples adopting them wasn't unheard of. Why they had never gotten to the point of actually filing in the necessary paperwork was because it had never seemed like a good time and then it had been already too late.

Iruka thought they would have stood a good chance of getting permission to adopt, since both he and Kakashi were outstanding members of their community in their own ways. The silver haired man was obviously the famous copycat nin, and he was a well-liked academy sensei who was praised for his methods with children. As he thought about the situation, Iruka couldn't help but bite back a bitter laugh at the irony. He'd once had an almost-perfect relationship with a wonderful boyfriend and longed for a child. Only when he had lost the first one, had he been able to get the other. Life was such a bitch sometimes.

'This is why I have to make him remember,' the dolphin thought and rested his head against his knees that were drawn up to his chest. Maybe it was selfish to want everything he'd dreamed of, but wanting happiness was hardly a crime. For a good ten minutes Iruka let himself just sit there, staring at the sleeping duo, after which he placed a light kiss on Kakashi's forehead and took Rin from him, gently shifting the girl on the couch so she could continue sleeping without being bothered when the jounin would get up.

He didn't need to wake the older man up since taking the girl from him had done the trick. Kakashi was sitting on the floor, rubbing his eyes with his left hand. 'It should be criminal to look like that in front of someone who's in love with them,' the chunin thought as he stared at the scarecrow, who looked really cute and sexy at the same time, being just woken up and smelling strongly of shampoo after the shower he'd taken earlier.

"Dinner's ready. Can you get up?" Iruka offered his hand to the other man, who grabbed it and managed to get on his feet, or rather foot, quite effortlessly.

"What's for dinner?" Kakashi asked, his question accompanied by a loud growl from his stomach as he started to work out some kinks from his back. Served him right after having slept in that kind of a position, the dolphin thought, amused.

"Grilled sanma with some fresh vegetables and rice, and I also made some miso soup. There's enough of it for a while so you can just heat it up later on if and when you get hungry," Iruka answered as he went to the kitchen to get the food. The older man could surely manage setting the table since he'd already carried everything necessary there, though they were still in a pile since the chunin had been distracted before finishing the setting.

Sure enough, when the brunette got back to the living room with the frying pan and rice cooker, Kakashi had already set the bowls and chopsticks on their respective places. If he wondered why his old favorite bowl still existed though almost everything else had been replaced, he didn't say a word about it. Then again, he didn't really have the time, for he was probably too busy thinking about the food. Iruka had to make one more trip to get the soup, though he only got a serving for the older man, since he wasn't really that keen on miso soup.

"Thif'f rlly 'ood."

Iruka knew what the jounin meant; even though his sentence had sounded weird because of the fact his mouth was full of rice and fish. "I'm glad to hear that," he said and picked up a piece of sanma with his chopsticks. "If you want to, you can eat the rest of that. Rin is still asleep and I have food at home I can warm up for her when she wakes up," he pointed out, and watched Kakashi nod thankfully before he scraped up the rest of the food still left in his bowl.

Iruka had already finished by the time the older man started slowing down a bit, looking like he actually had the time to taste the food before swallowing it. He was gnawing at a piece of dried bread to entertain himself when the scarecrow started talking.

"You," the chunin raised his eyes to look at Kakashi, who was pointing at him with his chopsticks.

"It's very rude to point with one's chopsticks," he scolded with a light frown appearing between his eyebrows, unable to stop himself before the words had already left him.

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk about," the jounin said, ignoring the comment about his rudeness "You're a teacher by nature aren't you? You even dare to correct me like you just did though I'm a rank higher than you. Those dolls, you made them right?"

Iruka nodded slowly, already guessing what the older man was about to say.

"You're teaching her real stuff with those. It's very rare for a three-year-old to know all those jutsus even by name, not to mention she also knows the hand signs that go with each of them." Kakashi had a contemplative look on his face, as if he couldn't decide whether what he had just said was something good or not.

"Well yes I do, there's no denying that. But I have to say that even though she does indeed know the jutsus by their names and signs, she cannot grasp her chakra quite yet, which makes playing safe. I did ask Tsunade-sama when I first had the idea and she thought it was brilliant. I have to add that she quite likes her doll, though she did note that her bosom is considerably larger." Iruka said with a slightly defending tone on his voice.

"She's a smart girl and she likes the dolls, though she still clearly prefers fairy tales as bedtime stories. Besides, there's no rule stating that one should not teach their kids before entering the academy; in fact a lot of the older houses do teach their kids from very early ages. Surely you must know that."

The scarecrow's eyes narrowed momentarily when Iruka mentioned about his family history, but he let it slide.

"Right, that reminds me there was another thing I wanted to ask you about," Kakashi seemed to have accepted the dolls, which was only reasonable, since there really was no good reason the chunin shouldn't have made up that kind of a game for the girl.

"She keeps calling me Prince or Mr. Prince. Is that connected to what you just said about her liking fairytales? I do find it amusing though, even if I can't say I understand why she'd call me that. I certainly don't look like one."

Iruka could barely hold back a laugh, which resulted to a sudden coughing fit as he swallowed some of the bread in a wrong way. When he was back to breathing normally again, he thought about the answer for a minute.

"Maybe you look like a prince to her," he offered, trying to avoid the subject and hoping it didn't sound too far-fetched to the older man. How had he been supposed to know the girl would start calling Kakashi a prince? Then again, he had called him that in his fairy tales and Rin did have a good memory. Somehow it seemed she had been able to tell he'd been talking about Kakashi and himself.

Fortunately, the older man seemed to believe his little white lie, seeing as he didn't press on the matter anymore. Maybe he found it amusing, maybe he just didn't care enough to continue about the same subject. It wasn't like children weren't behaving weirdly every now and then, and Kakashi had little knowledge about children's' behavior anyway.

After the dinner, Iruka cleaned up the table and washed the dishes while the older man played again with Rin, who had woken up as they had finished their meal.

"All right, we'll go now," he said as he came out from the kitchen, still wiping his hands on the apron he was wearing. It was a different one this time though, Iruka had already learned his lesson with the dolphin patterned one, and concluded that it'd be better not to show it in front of the older man again.

"Right, what time tomorrow?"

"Same as today, I'll come to get you to make sure you're not late." The younger man took Rin from Kakashi, who had been lifting her up and down with his uninjured leg, using her as a living dumbbell for a little extra training. Of course the girl was having fun, but Iruka was there to make sure the older man didn't overdo his rehab. No matter how much Rin liked the ride, it was time for the older man to get some rest for the day.

"And don't you train by yourself, I'll notice if you try to cheat on the program," the dolphin warned as he helped the smaller brunette put on her coat and shoes.

"Maa, I'll be a good boy," Kakashi promised with a smile, too fast to make the younger man believe him, but he didn't say anything. God knew that no one could keep the jounin in check completely, so it was wiser to let him have his own little private training sessions as long as he didn't go overboard with it.

"See you tomorrow then," Iruka said and got up with Rin on his shoulders.

"G'night Mr. Prince," the girl said and waved the jounin goodbye before they left to their own home.

_oOo_

Kakashi sighed as the door closed behind the chunin and his daughter. He was tired, but it was mostly mental tiredness, it wasn't like he was really going to wait around for a whole six months. As long as Iruka didn't notice, he was going to be just fine with a little extra training every now and then when the younger man wasn't around to watch what he was doing.

'Well, might as well get started then,' he thought as he went to his bedroom, where he found a pair of light weight dumbbells on the floor next to his wardrobe, right where they belonged. Soon after having started, he did however realize his body wasn't quite ready for extra training with weights yet, so he decided to continue with some katas instead. While working out in a steady pace, his mind buzzed over the day's events.

It was weird how quickly he'd gotten used to Rin, being with her had been somehow different from his previous encounters with children. She wasn't fussy or spoiled, didn't throw fits and damn the girl was smart. Then again, Kakashi had just met her and for all he knew, she could be one hell of a monster at home. He didn't really believe that himself though, somehow it just didn't seem like she was the sort to do that kind of thing, and he didn't really think Iruka would allow bad behavior under his roof anyway.

He'd also been able to see more genuine emotions on the said dolphin's face, the man seemed to let down his guard some when he was around his kid, lot of parents did that. It was one of the reasons Kakashi had never really thought of having children of his own, seeing as they would lower his ninja potential. The more people you loved, the more people could hurt you. That he had experienced first-handed when his team had perished along with his sensei, and he'd sworn not to get committed that way again.

'Okay, enough of this,' he thought when his thoughts started drifting to Obito and the Rin from his 'childhood'. He really didn't need to get depressed now on top of all the other shit he was dealing with, thank you very much. It was time to stop for the day anyway; Iruka would be there to wake him up in the morning way too early…


	16. The Chakra Seal

A/N: OMG I'm back! No, seriously though I'm very sorry about the ridiculously long time gap between this and the last chapter. I even posted a hiatus message on my bio, but it seems my muse decided to return to me after all. I still can't promise a steady posting rhythm, but I'll try to be a little more regular than I have been during the past two years. Well now, to the story and as always, reviews are hugely appreciated!

* * *

><p>15th chapter<p>

_**The Chakra Seal**_

_oOo_

Iruka was satisfied. A good couple of weeks had passed since the older man had woken up and the training was pretty much going according to the plan.

They had already started to form routines, which included him going over to the jounin's house in the morning to draw the curtains open so the sun would slowly wake Kakashi up as it rose. They would then have a breakfast prepared by the chunin while waiting for the older man to wake up, The chunin would then prepare a breakfast for them as he waited for the older man to wake up. Following breakfast, they would head to the training grounds where they would spend the rest of their day.

The dolphin would have a lunch prepared for them to eat in front of the memorial stone, or the place right next to it where Kakashi had tied Naruto up to the pole when they had had the infamous bell test. They would end the day with some stretching, after which they would go to get Rin so they could go eat dinner.

Iruka's academy work had been taken over by a replacement, although he was still voluntarily helping some of his colleagues by correcting home assignments and exams. His mission assignment desk job was pretty well covered as well, though he still did have a couple of shifts per week, but those he could deal with quite easily. He'd drop Rin to Naruto's place, or if the boy was busy with either Sakura's or Shizune's, and naturally after his shift he'd always go get the little girl home.

Where Kakashi's physical condition was good and improving rather fast considering the situation, his mental state was still rather unstable with some bothersome characteristics like his recent habit of getting sudden mood changes out of nowhere.

At first he could be really friendly and behaving almost like he had before he'd been captured, but it never lasted for long. It was only a question of time when he'd become easily irritable and his mood would darken, he wouldn't speak to Iruka or tolerate his presence well or at all. At those times he would always complain of a terrible headache which, as Iruka suspected, was causing his mood swings.

It was like Kakashi would have formed multiple personalities, although so far Tsunade hadn't diagnosed it. Still, his behaviour worried the chunin, who had a hard time enduring the harsh words and curses directed at him when the older man was having a bad day. What was also curious and a little worrying, was that no one else had reported having noticed these mood changes. Of course, no one else spent quite as much time with Kakashi as Iruka did, though the younger man still couldn't help but to think it was very strange.

Fortunately, the jounin never seemed to lose his patience when Rin was present. She seemed to have a calming effect on him, whether it was because she resembled the Rin from his own genin-team back in the day, or simply because the man hadn't changed so much as to start hurting children without strict orders to do so, Iruka didn't know. The only thing he knew was that Kakashi had gotten used to Rin, and he seemed to have taken a liking to the little girl as well. Then again, he though, who wouldn't have loved the energetic brunette?

The dolphin was still a bit lost in his thoughts as he entered Kakashi's apartment. He'd have to wake up the man first, then he'd make them breakfast, probably some eggroll and maybe grilled fish as well if the scarecrow behaved himself. Iruka was just about to take off his sandals when he heard a pained howl from the general direction of the bedroom. The sound of distress made him run to the jounin after having hurriedly kicked off the left sandal he'd still had on, their breakfast suddenly being the last thing in his mind as herushed to see the older man.

Kakashi was sitting on the floor in as comfortable position as his injured left leg allowed, the said left leg straight in front of him and the right one folded neatly so that he appeared to be sitting half cross-legged. What drew the chunin's attention after making sure the source of pain couldn't be the most obvious injury was the distant smell of iron in the air which alerted him immediately.

"What happened?" he asked as he crouched down do have a better view, big brown eyes scanning every inch of the scarecrow's haggard body. Kakashi didn't answer; he was too busy cradling his left hand with a kunai in his right one. It made it easy for the chunin to spot the source of his distress, which appeared to be the relatively heavily bleeding left hand.

"Kakashi!" he said in a stern tone, obviously scolding the man for being so careless, "What's wrong with you! What on earth were you trying to do?!" Iruka was worried and maybe just a little spooked by the situation. The silver haired jounin sure hadn't seemed self-destructive when he had left him the night before. Hell, Kakashi had almost seemed like his normal old self when they he had gone home with Rin.

"I was just trying to summon the pack." The answer was barked with a frustrated tone with some confusion evident as well as the scarecrow glanced at Iruka, asking for an explanation the man couldn't give him.

"Come on, get up. We're going to get you some professional help." The brunette couldn't see how deep the wound was but judging from the bleeding he concluded it might need stitches. Since the wheelchair was on the other end of the room, Iruka ended simply supporting the older man who jumped to the bathroom awkwardly on one wobbly leg.

"Keep it under the cold water for a second, I'll get some bandages," he instructed, reaching for the first aid kit for the bandages. He found what he wanted and carefully taking the bleeding hand from under the water before patting it dry with a fistful of toilet paper. With routine movements the hand was quickly bandaged, after which he had a much more difficult task to do; convincing Kakashi to get on his back so he could carry him to the hospital.

"Kakashi, I have to carry you to the hospital," he announced, waiting for the protest to come.

"What?!" Predictably the silver haired jounin did not let Iruka down, though his voice wasn't as loud as he'd expected, surely it couldn't be an effect of the blood loss yet, could it?

"We have to go to the hospital to show this, I can't tell how deep it is but it's bleeding so much you might need stitches and I'm not patching this one up. Also, since you couldn't summon your dogs and I bet you weren't howling because of your wound, there has to be something wrong with your chakra paths. That means that I can't teleport us and the wheelchair takes too long, you'll bleed out before we get to the hospital." Iruka knew his reasoning was flawless, and there were no other reasons for the older man to refuse but his own damn pride.

"No." Kakashi narrowed his eyes and glared at the brunette who returned his gaze seriously, making clear he wasn't going to listen to objections. He crouched before the scarecrow with his back to the older man, insinuating he should get on, but as expected, he didn't.

"Kakashi, I can carry you to the hospital like that this or I can knock you out and drag you there unconscious. Both options work fine with me but you've got to take your pick, we are going to the hospital right now." Iruka kept his tone calm and collected, knowing the older man was currently staring at him with an incredulous look on his masked face. "Yes, I did just threaten you. I'm not afraid to do as I said even though you are my superior. I am currently your caretaker, which gives me the right to do as I see fit when concerning your well-being."

Finally, with an audible grunt of discontentment Kakashi got on his back with his legs dangling against both of Iruka's sides and arms awkwardly hanging around his neck as loosely as possible.

"Thank you, now can you please keep your arm up and try not to smudge blood all over me?"

Iruka rose up and hurried to the door, rushing towards the hospital as soon as he got his sandals on. He knew the older man was more than uncomfortable hanging on his back like a sack of potatoes, helpless and vulnerable. That was the reason the chunin chose to travel over the rooftops, where they would meet the least possible amount of people on their way. Iruka didn't need nor did he want to make his charge any more uncomfortable than he already was, that would have resulted in the man acting up and he couldn't risk that when Kakashi was bleeding as heavily as he was.

_oOo_

"How the _hell_ did you manage to do this to yourself Kakashi?" the busty medic was studying the still bleeding wound with her hazel eyes drawn to slits.

"With a kunai," he answered truthfully, expecting the lecture to come.

"With a kunai!?" Tsunade's scream must have been heard to the other end of the building and it made both men jump a little. "Would you please tell me why you were slicing your palm open with a kunai at seven in the morning?! And why the hell is this wound this deep? Were you trying to slice off half of your hand or what?"

"Maa, you see…"

"Hatake Kakashi, I swear that if what you're about to say is a lie, you'll spend the rest of your miserable life doing D-rank missions picking up dog poo!"

The Copy-nin had the gall to look hurt at the medic's words "Such lack of faith," he muttered under his breath before answering just as Tsunade started to look like she'd punch him in the face. "I was trying to summon my pack, concentrating on gathering some chakra with the kunai in my hand to draw blood needed for the summoning. Something went wrong with that one though, I have no idea what, but the next thing I knew was that my left palm was sliced open and Iruka-sensei was crouched next to me, looking very displeased if I may add."

As Tsunade's expression didn't falter, the jounin saw it was best to add something to elaborate his story, since the wound had indeed been deeper than even he had been expecting. "And I might have had some problems regulating the force with which I cut myself since I was lifting weights last night for a couple of hours after Iruka-sensei left me alone," he admitted, almost wincing in advance for the disapproving looks he was bound to receive from his boss.

The Hokage's expression went from angry to irritate in a split second and she rolled her eyes, clearly trying to control the urge to relieve her frustration in physical means. Her shinobi, especially the elite seemed to be such a bunch of morons sometimes. Scratch that, not only did they seem like idiots sometimes but rather all the time. She took a good five minutes to calm down before speaking again, this time speaking slowly and over-articulating like she had been talking to a child.

"The excessive use of sharingan during your captivity has caused serious damage to your chakra paths. I've requested for a Hyuuga to come and take a closer look at you in_ a_ an hour, it was on your _today's_ schedule today anyway as you might have noticed if you'd taken a good look at the prints I gave you and Iruka." A tawny brow rose in question, leaving Kakashi pouting. She should have known he wouldn't read the damn papers anyway!

"Well anyway, we will have to wait until Neji gets here and then we'll see just how screwed up you are." The conversation seemed to be over, and instead of pushing it further, Kakashi let the Hokage heal his hand up with a gentle touch and some healing chakra. At least she didn't say he should deal with it since he'd caused it himself like last time. Having a broken leg and a stitched up hand that oozed blood wouldn't have been very nice, especially for a poor recovering patient like himself. 

_oOo_

"Good morning Hokage-sama, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei" Neji greeted them all with a polite bow as he entered the small hospital room Tsunade had lead the two men after the initial meeting in her office. She had sternly told Kakashi to lie down on the bed and her glare had made it clear it was an order, not request. Iruka had secretly snickered, it was right that the stupid blockhead had to suffer for something he'd caused himself, though he was of course worried for the older man. It wasn't normal for Kakashi to not be able to judge his own strength and harm himself like that in the process.

"Good morning Neji-kun, thank you for coming," the Hokage greeted the young man with a smile, "It seems that Kakashi-kun has some problems with his chakra flow after all, just like I thought. It's very fortunate he hadn't thought of trying to use any before today."

Neji raised an eyebrow and turned his white eyes towards the jounin in question, visibly noting his injuries. "So you did try using ninjutsu, Kakashi-sensei?" he asked but didn't react to the older man's pouting.

"Answer the boy Kakashi. Unlike certain someone's, not all of us can afford to sulk all day." Tsunade glared at the silver haired man from beside his bed.

"Sure you do, like you ever got anything done around here anyway," he quipped and answered properly before getting hit by the busty woman, "I tried to summon my pack, that's all. It's something I've done since I've been five or so, it's not such a big deal."

Iruka sighed and tried not to seem too desperate, why couldn't Kakashi just admit there was something wrong with him? The heavily bandaged hand was obviously proof everything wasn't 'just fine', so it'd be nice if the scarecrow could save them all the trouble and admit it already.

"Well obviously it is a big deal now" Neji muttered before activating his byakugan.

"Can you see what's wrong, Neji-kun?" Tsunade asked the teen who stared at Kakashi with his eerie clear eyes, veins bulging on his temples. Iruka was also impatient to hear what was wrong with the older man, but he didn't want to rush the young man.

"Yes Hokage-sama, there's plenty of screwed up paths in his system," Neji announced, making Kakashi grimace. "It looks like the damage's not irreversible, though I would recommend not using any chakra for some time. It'd probably be for the best to just let him stock up on it and see if the paths open up by themselves. If not, then we'll have to try out some more drastic measures but I'd like to see if his body can heal itself first."

Iruka frowned upon listening to the teen; he didn't quite understand why it was better to simply wait instead of doing something to make the situation better. He wasn't an expert on chakra though, so he'd do what Tsunade and Neji would deem the best. Kakashi might not though, he thought and sighed.

"What do you mean Neji-kun" he asked "I'm afraid I didn't quite catch up with you."

Neji deactivated his power and shook his head once, turning to look at his old teacher. "I'm assuming that Kakashi-sensei's reserves were being kept empty by exposing his sharingan periodically and that the pathways have dried up pretty bad because of the constant lack of chakra. See, the pathways work kind of like balloons," he said, receiving a puzzled look from Iruka, "when they dry up and stay empty for a long time, it can be very difficult to reopen them again, but letting the slowly accumulating chakra edge them open little by little just might do the trick."

"Which means that in order for him to heal, Kakashi has to completely stop using his chakra for quite some time," Tsunade completed, eyeing her patient who didn't look very impressed.

"Yeah, I can do that," Kakashi said with a smug smile, not being very convincing.

"Like I'd take your word for it that easily," the Hokage snorted and placed her hands firmly on her hips, "we're going to seal your chakra for the time being."

The announcement took both Iruka and Kakashi by surprise, though the dolphin had known she had something in her mind. He was sure Kakashi wouldn't be happy about it, but he did agree that it was probably for the best since the man would surely try to use ninjutsu in secret if something wasn't done about it. Sealing his chakra away might have seemed a little extreme to someone, but those who knew Kakashi also knew, that the man only dealt with extremes.

"No!" As expected, the scarecrow wasn't happy about Tsunade's decision.

"It's not open for debate Hatake," the woman said with her eyes narrowing, "if you know what's best for you, you'll shut up and let us do this without further complaints. We can do this easy or we can do this the hard way, your choice."

With his broken leg and the damage to his chakra, the jounin didn't really stand a chance escaping against the Hokage and two chunin.

"What's with you today, is it some kind of 'threaten the poor wounded jounin' day or something?" Kakashi whined with a pretty convincing pitiful look on his face, which however didn't affect the people present.

"What's that?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Oh nothing, feel free to rob me of the last line of defense I have, that's absolutely fine with me! I trust you have nothing against making your best shinobi completely defenseless and leaving him in the mercy of a nasty tempered chunin."

Iruka raised a brow, the older man was such a drama queen. His complaints didn't change the Hokage's mind, and soon Kakashi was stripped shirtless.

"Stay still Kakashi-sensei if you don't want me accidentally pushing the wrong pressure point," Neji warned him as he took a stance facing the jounin.

"Sure, accidentally."

"Shut the fuck up brat and let the kid do his job."

And do his job Neji did. The boy used his byakugan once again and then poked Kakashi several times in different places on his torso in rapid succession. The dolphin counted two under the ribs, one just below the navel and three around the collar bones, but he was sure he had missed some. Damn the young Hyuuga had become efficient and no longer fit the image of a sullen child Iruka remembered well from the academy. He smiled in secret, proud of the younger generation they had raised.

"It's done Kakashi-sensei."

"Thank you Neji-kun, how long do you think we'll have to wait before you can undo whatever it is you just did?" Iruka asked and frowned disapprovingly at the jounin who just grunted and turned to put on his shirt without as much as a thank you for the young man.

"I'd give it a week or two, seeing as he's already been recovering for some time. Hopefully Kakashi-sensei's attempt at using his chakra earlier today also speeded up things, but we'll just have to see how the recovery goes."

"So can we go now or does someone else still want to poke me in the ribs perhaps?" the humorless voice interrupted Iruka from thanking Neji again. He sighed and nodded apologetically to the boy who didn't seem to mind.

"You can go now brat, get out of here before I decide to smack you after all." Tsunade didn't sound like she meant it, but her words made the scarecrow limp to the door as fast as he could nevertheless.

"Thank you for seeing us Hokage-sama, Neji-kun." Iruka said and bowed politely before following his charge out of the room.


	17. The Mission Assignment Desk

16th chapter

_**The mission assignment desk**_

_oOo_

Kakashi was very much annoyed. So far he had done fifty push ups and thirty pull ups, but pushing his body didn't seem to be enough to make his mind relax. After yesterdays failed summoning he was left with absolutely no chakra and he was still physically way too weak to take on any enemies who might decide to attack him whilst he was recovering. He just didn't like it, being so vulnerable. At least if he had his pack with him, they might've provided him with some mental support, but no.

Maybe he should ask Iruka to summon them in his stead. The silver haired jounin frowned at the thought and wrinkled his nose. His dogs wouldn't like that, but then again if he wanted them present he didn't really have much choice. To use someone else to call upon one's personal summons was rarely done, mostly because the said summons normally took it as an insult, and besides that would mean their master had to reveal the seals to another person, which was also very personal.

He got up from the floor where he'd been stretching and trudged from his living room to the kitchen to get something to eat. They were supposed to start training later today, he had no idea why but he sure didn't mind. He'd already slept in after having received a phone call from Iruka that he'd only come around 5pm, done his daily trip to the memorial and on schedule with his additional training program. The jounin picked out some leftover soup from the fridge and quickly toasted some bread to go with it before wandering back to the living room.

After they'd gotten out of the hospital the day before, he'd been pretty pissed off for the rest of the day, barking at Iruka every chance he got. Honestly, he wondered how the man still hadn't gotten enough and just walked out on him. It wasn't like he didn't realize how childishly he was behaving at times, but he just couldn't help himself. There was still that something about the other man that annoyed the scarecrow so much he resorted in picking on Iruka more often than not. And of course there were the headaches, the unstoppable, annoying and endless headaches that possessed him every now and then when he was in the younger man's company.

Kakashi sighed and wolfed down the rest of his bread. He really should stop treating Iruka like shit. Maybe he'd hint to the man that having his dogs with him just might make him less intolerable. Besides, the dolphin owed him from ratting him out and having his chakra sealed away. Well, the little he had right now, but that was beside the point. Kakashi got up and chucked his now empty bowl into the sink before resuming his workout. He still had more pull ups to do and he also wanted to run some dozens of laps around the block before Iruka got there.

'I'll ask him when he arrives. If I behave well today, then he'll have to help me,' the jounin thought, cheering up a bit. How hard could it be, to behave himself for the day? And besides, he really did need his ninken, for safety reasons. The other man didn't have the right to deny them from him.

_oOo_

Iruka sighed as he walked towards his charge's place. He had just left Rin at Naruto's, where the girl would spend the rest of the day and probably also stay overnight, since the two men had a job to do. The job in question however had to be some kind of a cruel joke from Tsunade's part, but no matter how hard Iruka wished she hadn't asked it of him, she had. The dolphin sighed again as he recalled how the Hokage had insisted him to take the jounin along with him to his shift at the mission assignment desk later that evening. Seriously, Kakashi working a desk job? Pushing papers and signing off missions?

Needless to say, it didn't sound like a good idea, but it was what their leader had requested.

"_Excuse me?" Iruka had to hear it again._

"_You heard me Iruka-kun. Take the brat with you tonight when you go to your mission assignment desk shift. As you already might have heard already, Kotetsu caught some kind of nasty cold during his last mission, and like the moron he is, he passed it to Izumo as well, which however was completely predictable."_

"_Yes I have heard of Ko and Zu, but-" Tsunade didn't let him finish his sentence as she continued, silencing him effectively._

"_This as you probably understand leads to tonight's shift being two men short, and while I've already assigned one person to fill in for them, I still need one more competent ninja for the shift." she finished and looked at Iruka, as to dare him question her reasoning._

"_I totally understand the situation, but I don't think that Kakashi is uh, a 'competent' man to do this kind of a job, no matter how good a ninja he might otherwise be. I'm sure you do realize this as well," the chunin said, desperately trying to find reasonable arguments that would make the busty woman change her mind._

"_Indeed the brat is not hopeless in politics and paperwork that's a fact, but you're still taking him with you. I want to see that snotty little runt sitting behind that desk, trying to solve the worst written mission reports you can find him," the blonde's voice and grin clearly showed she was enjoying herself, but she wasn't the one who'd have to deal with Kakashi once he'd get bored, so there was nothing for her to worry about all right._

_The brunette sighed and nodded in forfeit, it was impossible to convince the Hokage. This was probably payback from yesterday, and he had to admit that Kakashi did have it coming to him. He had been such an ass for the rest of the day as well._

'_Well, she'll be right next door so we can always shove Kakashi in her direction if the situation goes bad,' Iruka thought with a resigned sigh before exiting the Hokage's office along with a polite bow._

That was why, he was now making his way to Kakashi's place to get the man. Of course, he hadn't told the jounin what they were going to do in advance, since he would surely have done anything to escape the cruel fate he was about to face. Instead, Iruka had just phoned him to tell they would start a little later.

Sighing before he fetched the key from the pocket of his uniform's vest, Iruka opened the door.

"Yo," a lazy voice greeted him as he walked in the living room, in which Kakashi was busy reading his Icha Icha on the couch. It seemed like the man was in a fairly good mood, which was a good thing. Maybe he'd be curious about the mission assignment desk job or something, anything to keep him from destroying the room or the files he would be given.

"So where are we going?"

Iruka had told the jounin that he'd come to get him a little before five o'clock and that they'd be going somewhere, that was all Kakashi really needed to know in advance.

"You'll see when we get there," he answered and waited for the older man to get up.

_oOo_

"So tell me again, why exactly did I have to leave my Icha Icha at home? I might need them," Kakashi was walking besides the dolphin, who still hadn't told him where they were going. "Why are you not telling me where we're going? Why didn't we take any training weapons with us" he was feeling childish, no particular reason, or maybe it was because Iruka refused to tell him anything, like he would have been a kid or something.

"Okay, I'll tell you since we're pretty close now anyway," the brunette said and sighed before starting, "Ko and Izu have caught a flu, and as you know they're both working with me at the mission assignment desk."

"So what?"

"Well, it so happens that Tsunade has chosen you to replace one of them tonight, and I would have gone anyway since I also have a shift today." Iruka seemed to be expecting some kind of complaining and burst of anger, and of course Kakashi couldn't let him down.

"What?!" he said and stopped walking in that instant. The copy nin glared at the chunin who looked like he didn't want to argue about the subject.

"It's not open for discussion; I already tried with no effect at all. Tsunade thought it'd teach you to hand in proper reports, she said it'd do you good to see what we have to put up with when you hand in your piece of shit reports full of bullshit and god knows what."

Kakashi knew the real reason was probably that the old hag wanted to see him suffering with the paperwork, since he was everything but suited for it. He narrowed his eyes as he continued to glare Iruka, who seemed indifferent about it.

"So that was the reason I had to leave my Icha Icha at home?" he asked with a pouting manner, to which the younger man sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, of course it is. As you know, even though we're taking care of the last shift, there might still be children coming to hand in missions. I can't have you reading that filth in front of kids, and besides you're supposed to work anyway. I promise you that the mission reports will keep you busy enough so you won't have the time to miss your precious porn," the brunette started walking again, stopping after a few meters to look at the scarecrow.

"You can come with me voluntarily or I can drag you in there. You know you're no match for me yet," he said, pointing out the obvious which annoyed Kakashi very much. He didn't like to be reminded of his current state.

"All right, all right. I'll walk myself, but I have one condition," he said, realizing now was his chance to ask Iruka about his dogs.

"Um, what's that then?" Iruka seemed cautious, as he raised a brow and tilted his head a little to the side.

"Well I was thinking that maybe you'd agree to summon my ninken in my stead, seeing as it's thanks to you that I can't do it myself."

"It was not my fault. You couldn't have summoned them even if we hadn't sealed your chakra and you know it as well as I do," the dolphin retorted, but didn't seem too opposed to the idea.

"Well okay, but I'm not comfortable being this helpless and they'd make me feel better. Plus they're ninken and they could help us with training and also watch over me while I'm alone."

"Hmm, well I guess I could help you out with that…"

Kakashi's day instantly got better. As annoying as the mutts were at times, he still did love them.

"If you behave yourself tonight that is," Iruka finished his sentence.

"Oh. Well I guess I'll have to then," the scarecrow gave his company a sheepish smile, cursing the teacher in his mind for having added that one condition that made it all so much more difficult.

"You'd better."

_oOo_

"'Ruka! I was hoping you'd have your shift today," Genma's voice welcomed them as they entered the mission assignment room. "Haven't seen you in a while, I heard you've been stuck as a baby sitter lately," he hugged the chuckling brunette, whose voice high pitched for a second when the senbon sucking jounin grabbed his ass shamelessly as ever.

"Genma!" he scolded with a grin, the man seriously had some weird habits like sexually harassing his colleagues. 'Jounin' the dolphin thought dismissively and rolled his eyes as Genma winked to him before returning to his seat with a somewhat satisfied smirk on his lips. Iruka noticed the look he had, and his brows knitted together momentarily as he wondered what the reason was.

"So", he said directing his attention back to the scarecrow "I think it's best that-" the chunin frowned again and tilted his head a bit as he noticed Kakashi's expression. He hadn't even had the time to make the jounin work yet so why was he so obviously pissed off? The expression on the jounin's face was almost scary.

"Uh, you can sit down over there" Iruka ended up saying, pointing towards Kotetsu's empty desk at the left side of the room. "I'll come over in a minute to give you something to work with." He walked over to his usual desk between those of Kakashi's and Genma's, having a little bad feeling about the upcoming evening.

He found two piles of papers, one for him and one for Kakashi. Tsunade's hand-written note was on the pile that looked messier.

'Give this to the brat and make sure he does at least half of them,' he read and sighed before taking the note off and walking over to Kakashi's desk so he could hand out the documents to him.

"Here you go, there was a note with them that said you'll have to file at least the half of them before the shift is over," he said, knowing that the man would probably do exactly the half now that he'd revealed how much he'd have to do to earn his freedom. Still, it was better to let the scarecrow he wouldn't be allowed to leave before that, so all Iruka could really do was to hope for the best and fear the worst. "Finishing all of it would increase the probability of getting Pakkun to keep you company later on though," he added hopefully, not expecting too much.

"Okay" was the answer, simple but almost too compliant.

'Well whatever, I'll just have to keep an eye on him,' Iruka thought as he walked over to his own desk.

_oOo_

The evening went on surprisingly well. Iruka wasn't sure if Kakashi really was working, but at least he seemed to be doing so and he wasn't causing any trouble, which indicated he was at least doing something to keep his genius mind occupied.

Apparently Genma had started his shift already at four o'clock, so he was supposed to be leaving a couple of hours earlier than they were. He was currently having his break, since it was already half after seven and he had to take his break so that Iruka and Kakashi would also be able to do so after he was done.

"Gods this coffee tastes so horrible it's not even real," Genma walked over to the dolphin's desk and sat down on the corner, "It should be illegal to make something this god-awful, or at least the culprit should be hanged."

Iruka chuckled and raised his eyes from the report he was currently working on. "Well you don't really have to drink it you know," he said amused and raised a brow at the jounin, biting the blue pen he had been fiddling with.

"Very true, but why is it that every single time I'm assigned as a replacement, the coffee is bad? Who makes this anyway?" He was clearly just looking for a subject to talk about, and Iruka didn't mind, he had already finished two thirds of his share anyway.

"Well you did re-heat it didn't you? It's bad because it's been cold once already. I always drink tea here, it's so much better, and fresh," the dolphin pointed at his own cup which was filled with green tea. "Besides tea's good whether it's hot or cold."

"Well maybe I'll take some of that the next time I'm here then," Genma purred and stared at the younger man intensely, making Iruka shift uncomfortably.

What was going on?

The senbon sucking jounin glanced to his side briefly, seemingly seeing something that pleased him.

"Ruka dear, I actually got really interested in that tea you mentioned, you wouldn't mind showing me how to make some?" Genma's smiled at the confused chunin, who nodded slowly with his eyes slightly squinted with suspicion as he followed the jounin to the small kitchen hey had in the room next door.

"Genma, what's going on?" he asked as soon as the tokubetsu jounin turned around and leaned against the counter, obviously holding back laughter.

"Did you see his face?"

Iruka's brows knit together as he tried to figure out what the other man meant, but it took a good couple of minutes for him to realize the purpose of Genma's actions. Of course, it was Genma after all!

"Oh get out of here!" he said as he felt both horror and amusement rippling inside of him.

"Hell yes, you really should have seen it," Genma laughed, now openly, slapping his hand against his thigh. "I was sure he'd strangle or bite me or just something, anything. It's such a pity you didn't see his face"

The chunin snorted and let out a laugh, imagining what Kakashi must have looked like. So it was to make the Copy Nin jealous that Genma had flirted with him so openly, he should've realized it earlier. If Kakashi had been half as mad as the jounin in front of him claimed, what was it if not proof that he still felt something towards Iruka? However as funny as it was the dolphin couldn't help but to worry a bit as well, the older man was still mentally pretty unstable after all. What if Genma would only make him more reluctant to remember anything?

His thoughts were interrupted as Genma suddenly pulled him closed by his waist and kissed him forcefully, making him wince with surprise. Iruka didn't have to wonder the cause for long, since he could feel the murderous energy coming from the general direction of the door.

"Your break ended two minutes and twenty six seconds ago," Kakashi's ice cold voice was surprisingly calm as Genma let go of the chunin whose face was beetle red.

"Oh my, I seem to have forgotten to look at the time," he said, obviously lying. "Well then; it should be your turn right? I'll go back to work, come back when you're ready." He brushed Iruka's scarlet cheek with his left hand before he passed the other jounin who didn't budge, causing their shoulders to bump. "Sorry" he said, grinning at Kakashi who was glaring at him with his visible eye narrowed to a slit.

'God Genma's got to stop that or he'll be murdered in his sleep,' Iruka thought with a grin as the senbon sucking jounin disappeared in the other room, leaving him in a somewhat awkward situation with Kakashi.

"Uh, tea?" he asked, realizing he had never actually gotten to the part where he was supposed to make tea, since it hadn't been Genma's real intention from the beginning. To cover up his mistake, Iruka spun around and put the kettle on the stove, trying to come up with something he could say to lighten up the atmosphere. He didn't like the awkward, a bit menacing silence that hung upon them.

"I thought Genma and Raidou were an item. At least they were when I left," Kakashi's voice was humourless and calm to the point it was making the chunin all the more nervous. What lay underneath that mask of calmness he wore? It was so much easier to deal with people who showed their emotions freely, and Iruka guessed that was why he liked children.

"They are," he answered, still keeping his eyes on the kettle, refusing to turn around and face Kakashi. He was well aware that his cheeks were still burning from being caught in Genma's embrace, and he was cursing the man for it.

"So what was that just now? And before in the mission assignment room as well, are you having an affair? What would you do if you were the cause of them breaking up?"

After the few milliseconds it took Iruka to understand the ridiculous question the jounin had made, he burst out in laughter, bending in two in effort to control himself. It took him some time to calm down, after which he straightened up and wiped the tears off from the corners of his eyes.

"So what if we were kissing? Certainly you haven't forgotten how he is, how both of them are," he wiped his left eye with the sleeve of his black turtleneck. "If I were to 'have an affair' with Genma, the only thing Raidou would probably complain about would be not including him in the fun."

With that, he turned off the electricity of the stove and poured some hot water on the matcha powder he'd put in his teacup while he had been talking. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to work".

_oOo_

After Iruka and Kakashi had gotten out of the kitchen, the honey haired jounin had emptied his now lukewarm coffee in the sink and gotten himself a clean senbon from his pocket. Unlike people thought, he didn't really chew on the same stick all day long since that would just have been disgusting. Even metal had an unfortunate tendency to gather all kinds of tastes to it and he certainly didn't want to be tasting bad coffee for the rest of the day.

He wasn't quite finished musing over the little episode he'd created with Iruka, surely the chunin hadn't taken his kiss too badly. The brunette was quite hot though it was a well-known fact he was already taken, had been for years. Not that he would've left Raidou for anyone, but things could always be spiced up a little. Iruka would always be a very welcome third wheel in their relationship that was for sure.

"Oh hi Genma!" the honey haired man lifted his head to see who'd walked in the kitchen, though he had already recognised the voice.

"What's up Naruto? Are you here for Iruka or has someone pinned you for a shift?"

"Nah, I'm here for him as always. I figured Bakashi-sensei is probably going to give him hell for making him do paperwork so I thought I'd come here to see that they don't kill each other."

The older man gave a hearty laugh and sobered up as he remembered the stunt he'd just pulled. "I might just have made the situation a little worse," he admitted and told Naruto what he'd done. The kid didn't seem to think it had been a bad thing though, he even laughed.

"I'd give a lot to see that look on sensei's face, he used to glare at us when we were kids if we got too chummy with Iruka."

"He did?"

"He sure did, oh boy the extra exercises we had to do afterwards! We never did figure out the reason though, the realization only came years after."

As the got out of the small kitchen, Genma walked straight into Kakashi who seemed for some reason to be frozen in place. "Whoa man, watch where you're standing" he said jokingly and spread his arms to show he hadn't meant to bump into the other man. "Why are you standing here, I think your master already went back to his desk. Shouldn't you be following him or something? Oh, and by the way, look who's here to see you two."

Suddenly Kakashi turned to him with an angry glare, ignoring the teenager "Shut up, I've got nothing to say to you," he barked.

Genma lifted a brow, unimpressed, and tilted his head to the side a bit. "Snappy, aren't we? Who's got your panties in a twist?" his face melted to a lecherous grin which had the scarecrow furrowing. It seemed like Naruto was in on it as soon as he started, sinking silently to their side.

"No one," Kakashi said firmly and ground his teeth almost audibly.

"Oh sorry was it something you saw or something you wanted but couldn't get perhaps?" the tokubetsu jounin knew he was playing with fire and a very dangerous flame to boot but he wasn't known to be quirky for no reason. This was the most fun he had had in a while and he was damned if he was going to let the opportunity to tease Kakashi slip. And besides, it wasn't like he couldn't take an injured Kakashi with Naruto's help. Surely they'd be able to pin him down if need be.

"Could you stop that, I don't like what you're insinuating. Don't you have something to do, like work perhaps?"

"Nope, unlike certain someone who's slacking off and who will soon have his arse handed out to him on a silver platter, I actually don't have any work left for today. In the past though, I bet you would have liked to get your pretty bum kicked by him wouldn't you have? I always pictured you for the kinky type but I guess we'll never know now. I've also always though he must be a feisty little thing to mount, tell me is that true?"

The fist flying past Genma's head didn't really surprise him; in fact he'd half expected Kakashi to react sooner. Ten points for the man for letting him finish his sentence. He could also hear Naruto wailing silently about how he didn't need to hear this. Apparently the hands he had pressed against his ears didn't work as silencers as well as the boy had hoped.

"Shut your dirty mouth already! Don't you speak about him like that! He's different from you!" the scarecrow was now leaning close to Genma, his fist imbedded an inch into the wall.

"How's he different from me?" the tokubetsu jounin asked and watched Kakashi struggle to keep his composure, "I'm gay and so is he. Also if you remembered, you'd know I wasn't kidding about him being quite entertaining in the bedroom, though it isn't me who should know that the best, but someone else entirely".

"He's not a pervert like you Genma"

"Oh really? And how exactly would you know that, the fact he isn't into reading porn in front of children doesn't mean he couldn't be kinky when he wants to. If you'd hear half the curses he casts when he's drunk you wouldn't say that, did you know he's sworn that if I try molesting him in the office again he'll personally insert my senbons in my-"

"He's not a toy for you to play with!"

This time Genma didn't have the time to answer before his adversary was pushed off him. Clearly Naruto's silencing technique had been a very poor one and the kid was all worked up over everything. The senbon user didn't mind the boy taking over his role on defending Iruka, Naruto did know his mentor better after all. It was Genma's turn to step aside now.

"He's not? So why is it that you get to toy with him all day long?"

Naruto had dragged his sensei off Genma and was now holding the weakened man by his collar against the wall, shouting with his face bright red. Whether it was from the dirty talk he'd been subjected to seconds earlier or the anger, Genma didn't know nor care.

"What?! I don't-"

"Oh really? So what is it exactly you think you're doing, treating him like you'd known him forever and like you were in love with him at first and then telling him to back the fuck off when he tries to care for you? If that's not toying then what the hell is it?"

"What? I don't-"

"No, you shut up for once and think with that goddamn genius brain of yours! I know you've seen the looks he gives you! You've noticed those glances that disappear as soon as you turn to him so you think it was never there but it was, those glances he sneaks are real! You are the one who has to stop Kakashi, so either remember or leave him alone for good. This vague thing you have is not good for him, can't you see he's breaking!"

For a moment it looked like Naruto was about to punch his teacher, but the kid somehow managed to hold himself back. The kyuubi boy's voice was softer and a bit shaky as he continued, his hand holding the older man in place loosening a little.

"I don't know if there will be enough left for me to pick up if you continue torturing him this way Kakashi-sensei. I couldn't do it very well the last time and this time I might not be able to do it at all," his blue eyes were moist as he kept holding onto Kakashi's shirt, fisting the fabric into tight knots as his speech took an angrier turn. "He doesn't exist for you only, he's also mine and Rin's. We won't hand him over to someone who's treating him as bad as you are right now, so either get a damn grip or get out of his life!"

Having said what he wanted Naruto let go of the jounin, sniffling softly before sprinting away. Kakashi didn't budge from where he was standing, looking quite shocked. Genma knew the man was too proud to let himself sag on the floor in front of him so he took it as his cue to leave. Things had certainly gotten a little more out of hand than he had originally intended, but at least something had been done. Naruto for one had surely looked like he had emptied a huge load off his mind, maybe something good would come out of the mess he had created. Surely.

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><p>AN: Thank you for reading, reviews are hugely appreciated as always!


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